Publications

Educators

30 Jun 2015
Video

Gender Differences in Health, Wellness, and Healthcare

04 Apr 2019
HBS Conference

Gender and Work Symposium

08 Jun 2015
News

Gender integration in consulting

One of the first women to be recruited by McKinsey & Company, pioneer Joan Griewank Colligan (MBA 1964) eventually launched her own practice as an independent consultant. (Published June 2015) View Details

2025
Working Paper

Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Generative AI

By: Nicholas G. Otis, Solène Delecourt, Katelynn Cranney and Rembrand Koning

Generative AI has the potential to transform productivity and reduce inequality, but only if adopted broadly. In this paper, we show that recently identified gender gaps in generative AI use are nearly universal. Synthesizing data from 18 studies covering more than... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Technology Adoption; Behavior

10 May 2011
News

The Twitter Gender Gap

06 May 2021
HBS Conference

Gender and Work Symposium

21 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

HBS Research Focuses on Gender Issues and Fixes

business management. Here are recent articles and working papers on faculty research that focus on gender issues in the workplace and offer specific actions that companies can use to address them. We will be highlighting more work in this... View Details

2012
Working Paper

An Outside-Inside Evolution in Gender and Professional Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Kathleen McGinn and Deborah Kolb

We study the process by which a professional service firm reshaped its activities and beliefs over nearly two decades as it adapted to shifts in the social discourse regarding gender and work. Analyzing archival data from the firm over eighteen years and... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firms; Social Institutions; Organizational Learning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Employment; Gender; Society; Service Industry

SSRN

To explore how companies enforce management control systems, we examine whether social relationships influence the severity and consistency of punishments for main perpetrators of corporate economic crimes. We find wide variation in rates of dismissal and... View Details

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

2010
Working Paper

Men as Cultural Ideals: How Culture Shapes Gender Stereotypes

By: Amy J.C. Cuddy, Susan Crotty, Jihye Chong and Michael I. Norton

Three studies demonstrate how culture shapes the contents of gender stereotypes, such that men are perceived as possessing more of whatever traits are culturally valued. In Study 1, Americans rated men as less interdependent than women; Koreans, however, showed the... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Perception; Values and Beliefs; Gender; Culture; Power and Influence

February 2014
Article

Gender Differences in Willingness to Guess

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman

We present the results of an experiment that explores whether women are less willing than men to guess on multiple-choice tests. Our test consists of practice questions from SAT II subject tests; we vary whether a penalty is imposed for a wrong answer and the salience... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Decision Making; Microeconomic Behavior; Education Systems; Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions; Gender; Economics

Find at Harvard

05 May 2022
HBS Conference

Gender and Work Symposium

February 2023 (Revised March 2023)
Case

The LPGA’s Long Drive Toward Gender Equity

By: Boris Groysberg and Alexis Lefort

This case provides a history of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and examines the reasons for the gender pay gap in professional sports. The case protagonist, the commissioner of the LPGA, wrestles with the opportunities and challenges the LPGA currently... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Gender; Growth and Development Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Sports Industry; United States

Educators

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

Educators

April 2025
Article

Gender and Preferences for Performance Feedback

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and David Klinowski

Across multiple studies, we investigate whether there are gender differences in preferences for receiving performance feedback. We vary many features of the feedback context: whether the performance task is a cognitive test or a mock interview, whether the feedback is... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Gender; Cognition and Thinking; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior

Find at Harvard

2021
Working Paper

The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap

By: Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

Offices are social places. Employees and managers take breaks together and talk about family and hobbies. In this study, we show that employees’ social interactions with their managers can be advantageous for their careers, and that this phenomenon contributes to the... View Details

Keywords: Career; Promotions; Social Interactions; Networking; Gender; Personal Development and Career; Wages; Social and Collaborative Networks