Faculty & Research
Research
Research
24
Results
- January 2025
- Teaching Material
Understanding and Addressing Gender Gaps
| This module provides a framework for students to analyze how gender stereotypes, through their impact on beliefs about others and beliefs about ourselves, contribute to gender gaps in the workplace. The module proceeds in three parts. First, through a case and an... |
- July 2024
- Management Science
Whether to Apply
By: Katherine B. Coffman, Manuela Collis and Leena Kulkarni
| Labor market outcomes depend, in part, upon an individual’s willingness to put herself forward for different opportunities. We use a series of experiments to explore gender differences in willingness to apply for higher return, more challenging work. We find that, in... |
- November 2023
- Teaching Material
Inclusion and Diversity at Mars Petcare
By: Katherine Coffman, Jillian J. Jordan and Emma Ronzetti
| Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 923-005. |
- 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... |
- March 2022
- Teaching Material
Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham
By: Katherine Coffman and Olivia Hull
| Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 921-006, “Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham." This case invites students to explore the individual and structural factors that lead to an under-representation of women in male-dominated domains, and to think critically about... |
- September 2021
- Games and Economic Behavior
Gender Stereotypes in Deliberation and Team Decisions
By: Katherine B. Coffman, Clio Bryant Flikkema and Olga Shurchkov
| We explore how groups deliberate and decide on ideas in an experiment with communication. We find that gender biases play a significant role in which group members are chosen to answer on behalf of the group. Conditional on the quality of their ideas, individuals are... |
- Harvard Business Review
Unconscious Bias Training That Works
By: Francesca Gino and Katherine Coffman
| To become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, many companies have turned to unconscious bias (UB) training. By raising awareness of the mental shortcuts that lead to snap judgments—often based on race and gender—about people’s talents or character, it strives to... |
- June 2021
- Management Science
The Role of Beliefs in Driving Gender Discrimination
By: Katherine B. Coffman, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle
| While there is ample evidence of discrimination against women in the workplace, it can be difficult to understand what factors contribute to discriminatory behavior. We use an experiment to both document discrimination and unpack its sources. First, we show that, on... |
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Impact of Penalties for Wrong Answers on the Gender Gap in Test Scores
By: Katherine B. Coffman and David Klinowski
| Multiple-choice exams play a critical role in university admissions across the world. A key question is whether imposing penalties for wrong answers on these exams deters guessing from women more than men, disadvantaging female test-takers. We consider data from a... |
- November 2019
- Case
Chief: Role for Carolyn Childers
| In 2018, Carolyn Childers is preparing to launch Chief, a New York-based peer network for women executives, and must decide whether to bring on a co-founder. After becoming the senior vice president of operations at her previous company, Childers was inspired to build... |
- November 2019
- Case
Scaling at Chief
| Chief is a New York-based peer network that provides mentorship, support, networking opportunities, and a sense of community to women executives. Co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan launched the company in January 2019, and just two months later, Chief has... |
- November 2019
- Case
Chief: Role for Lindsay Kaplan
| In 2018, Lindsay Kaplan is preparing to meet with Carolyn Childers about the possibility of co-founding Chief, a New York-based peer network for women executives. Kaplan is currently the vice president of communications and brand engagement at a successful mattress... |