Publications

25 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

Gerdeman is senior editor at Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Image: Willbrasil21 Related Reading: Women Receive Harsher Punishment at Work Than MenSponsorship Programs Could Actually Widen the Gender Gap Gender-Diverse... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

13 Feb 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Diversity in Innovation

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers and Sophie Q. Wang; Financial Services; Education

2022
Working Paper

The Gender Minority Gaps in Confidence and Self-Evaluations

By: Billur Aksoy, Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

An increasing share of the population identifies as something other than male or female. Yet, we know very little about the economic preferences and beliefs of gender minorities. In this paper, we document a “gender minority gap” in confidence and in self-evaluations.... View Details

Keywords: Self-evaluation; Confidence; Gender; Identity; Perception; Income

Read Now

Research Summary

Overview

By: Katherine B. Coffman

Professor Coffman studies the sources of gender gaps in economically-important contexts. Her work focuses on the role of beliefs: how do stereotypes bias the beliefs that individuals hold about themselves (and others), and how do these biased beliefs shape... View Details

Keywords: Gender; Stereotypes; Diversity Management; Experiments

04 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

Diversity Boosts Profits in Venture Capital Firms

Gompers and research assistant Sophie Wang developed a novel way to determine exactly how much gender diversity influenced performance. Examining reunion books from the small number of universities... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Banking; Financial Services

July 2011
Case

Shifting the Diversity Climate: The Sodexo Solution

By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie J. Creary

This case profiles the evolution of Sodexo's diversity initiative. Diversity became a key priority for Sodexo, North America in 2001 after a class-action lawsuit was filed and certified in Washington, D.C. against Sodexo Marriot Services, Inc., the food services... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Business Strategy; Globalization; Management Teams; Gender; Race; Ethnicity; Age; Food and Beverage Industry; North America; Washington (state, US)

1 Jan 1999
Conference Presentation

Beyond Armchair Feminism III: Moving From Gender to a Broader Diversity Lens in Organizational Diagnosis and Intervention

By: R. Ely and Debra E. Meyerson

Keywords: Gender; Diversity; Organizational Culture; Organizations

31 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Taking the Fear out of Diversity Policies

If you start a discussion about workplace diversity policies, don't be surprised if the hopeful topics of ethnic, racial, and gender heterogeneity lead to negative discussions about sexism, bigotry, and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

March 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Gender and Free Speech at Google (A)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Martha J. Crawford and Sarah Mehta

In August 2017, Google fired James Damore, a 28-year-old software engineer who had been employed by the company since 2013. The move came after Damore penned an internal company memo titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,” which posited that innate biological... View Details

Keywords: Free Speech; Representation; Diversity; Gender; Race; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Labor; Employment; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizational Culture; Technology Industry; United States; California

05 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

A Positive Approach to Studying Diversity in Organizations

Keywords: by Lakshmi Ramarajan & David Thomas

11 Jun 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Gender in Job Negotiations: A Two-Level Game

Keywords: by Hannah Riley Bowles & Kathleen L. McGinn

January 2023
Case

Inclusion and Diversity at Mars Petcare

By: Katherine Coffman and Tom Quinn

In 2020, the Mars Petcare Leadership Team found themselves dealing with critically important inclusion and diversity issues. Social unrest, including unprecedented protests for racial justice in the U.S. and across the globe, generated an urgency for substantive... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Diversity; Ethnicity; Gender; Race; Food and Beverage Industry; Health Industry; Europe; North and Central America; Asia; South America; Oceania

08 May 2013
Research & Ideas

A Company’s Evolving View of Gender Equity

1991 and 2009, a period when the growing number of highly educated women in the workforce tested widely held understandings about gender and professional work, write the authors, Harvard Business School professors Lakshmi Ramarajan and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Accounting

17 Apr 2013
Research Event

Conference Challenges Gender Conventions

Cuddy. "We've come a long way. Our current 900-plus first-year students are 40 percent women—our highest percentage ever," said Ely. "And our student body is far more diverse now than it was 50 years ago, not just in View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

11 Feb 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Gender Stereotypes in Deliberation and Team Decisions

Keywords: by Katherine B. Coffman, Clio Bryant Flikkema, and Olga Shurchkov

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Managing Diversity at Cityside Financial Services

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Cityside Financial Services, a disguised consumer bank, serves both a largely African-American urban community and a more affluent, predominantly white clientele. To match the gender and racial makeup of its staff to that of its customers, Cityside's sales division... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Situation or Environment; Race; Employees; Gender; Customer Satisfaction; Diversity; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry