Gender issues

A recent study concluded that messages from Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead , cause people to believe that women are responsible for gender inequality, whereas messages about structural problems cause people to see a need for institutions and society to address discrimination.  After  tweeting  about this study I saw many say that it validated what they had long thought and found bothersome – even oppressive – about the 2013 book: That encouraging women to adapt to and play a “man’s” game that is structurally stacked against them and beyond their control, and tailoring this advice to a small subset of privileged women, is misguided and insensitive (as Sandberg later acknowledged ). But Lean In still made an important contribution to discourse about women and leadership. At the time it came out, Sandberg’s message was a highly unusual one in the corporate world, which liked to parade successful women on panels for "women in busine...

This week I, along with many others, shared what I think is an excellent analysis of what enabled Joe Kinder to bully women climbers. I’ve spent my career studying organizational cultures that enable sexual harassment and bullying, and the analysis reflected what research reveals about these dynamics: Harassers and bullies are empowered by the culture around them. The article was not so well received by everyone, however. One straight white New Zealander male climber described the analysis as “a revolting piece of tripe,” and said the claim that the climbing community “actively promotes misogyny, white supremacy, ableism, rape culture, homophobia, transphobia, body shaming, and the erasure of native narratives” lacks all credibility. His basis for asserting this, despite having no experience as a female, minority, disabled, or gay member of the climbing community, includes that World Cup Events have “Alternating Male and Female finals, equal prize money,” that there’s excellent ...

Canada Research Chair and Professor  Ayesha Chaudhry  has resigned from the University of British Columbia's Board of Governors. I imagine the decision to resign from the UBC Board of Governors was a long and difficult one for Prof. Chaudhry. She ran as a faculty representative to bring academic values and accountability to the Board and was widely elected and supported by her colleagues. If Prof. Chaudhry’s experience was anything like mine on the UBC Presidential Search Committee, she quickly realized how alienating it is to be one of only three faculty members on a 21-person corporate-controlled Board. It was likely even worse for Chaudhry as a woman of color. Combining this with the Board's shenanigans that are designed to manipulate information and process to achieve desired decisions and minimize academic voices, a sense of helpless futility can set in. These shenanigans include strategic seating arrangements, sudden breaks during meetings when conversation veers f...

I’m a researcher who studies sex-based harassment, but that doesn’t make me immune to it. To the contrary, my expertise has drawn ire and derision from some of my male colleagues over the years, who have uttered offensive jokes or comments in my presence, as if to get me back for making them feel uncomfortable. Expertise gives you the resources to recognize what is happening and to not take it too personally. But it does not shield you from the entrapping nature of the behavior -- the risk of alienating the harasser and the network of people who rely upon, like, or admire him. Harassment comes in many shapes and forms: from jokes, comments, materials, or acts that undermine one's sense of dignity and safety in the workplace to unwanted sexual attention, touching, and coercive requests. Throughout my career most of these experiences have been one-off events with men who ceased when asked or could subsequently be avoided. But as many women experience in their professional lives, I ha...