We have proudly hosted our annual research symposium under the Gender and Work label since 2013. We are excited to continue the event under our new name, the Race, Gender & Equity at Work Symposium The theme we’ll explore this year is “Tools for Humanity: Rage and Love as Acts of Resistance and Renewal,” which we propose as a counterpoint to last year’s theme, where we engaged with Audre Lorde’s provocative claim that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” At that gathering, we examined whether and how various institutions and practices in the U.S.—capitalism, gender, companies’ diversity-equity-and-inclusion initiatives, and higher education—constitute master’s tools. The discussion was deep and generative but left us hungering for something more constructive, more affirmative. If not the master’s tools, then what?

The 2022 Gender and Work Symposium aims to engage with Audre Lorde’s provocative claim. Our intent is to turn a critical eye toward current ideas about how to eradicate inequality and, in the process, to engender new ones. Even as many activists and academics continue to wrestle with whether and how “master’s tools” can be turned toward liberatory ends, powerful new strategies and technologies are reshaping work and life in potentially emancipatory ways. Many of these redeployments and innovations are aimed at advancing equality. Which of these tools hold promise, and which are fundamentally incompatible with that goal?

The 2021 Gender and Work Symposium, held virtually, spoke to the various crises that have so strikingly come to the fore this past year, here in the US and across the world. To name just a few, we have witnessed civil protests over the repeated, now increasingly publicized police killings of Black people; the Jan 6th invasion of Congress by election-result deniers, goaded on by our very own former President; the passage of racist voter suppression bills; and increased violence against Asian Americans, particularly older women. all stemming from structural features and systemic pressures related to our theme: race, capitalism and democracy. We aimed to host a thoughtful conversation about these themes, the crises we are facing today, and how we, as a community of scholars and thoughtful practitioners committed to addressing how gender, race, class, and other axes of dominance and oppression reproduce structural inequalities in organizations.

Our 7th annual symposium is inspired by the way resistance movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter have prompted a widespread examination of power relationships in new, or newly urgent, ways. As we applaud the courage many have found to speak and act on their convictions, we also observe instances of backlash and critique. It is this conflict that we aim to unpack, examining the beliefs and actions that define, unite, and separate us so that we might more effectively engage the project of advancing structural equality in the workplace and beyond.

In keeping with the School’s AASU50 commemoration, this symposium was distinguished by an explicit and sustained focus on race. By centering discussions on the Black experience, “Race, Work and Leadership” aimed to advance the conversation about race in organizations and society.

The 2017 symposium focused on how identity categories are experienced, interpreted, and contested through practices of expression, performance, and self-presentation. It examined such topics as the deconstruction of the gender binary; the concept of the authentic self; and how social identities, such as gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation, intersect to affect oppression and resistance to oppression.

The symposium examined the role of unconscious processes in sustaining inequality; how we can reconstruct dominant, yet empirically ungrounded, narratives about social groups; how to navigate undiscussable challenges in the workplace and other settings; and how learning to "talk the walk" can help leaders create lasting change.

This event brought together scholars and practitioners to explore how research can effectively reach and influence practice to advance gender equity in business and society.

The second Gender & Work symposium gathered together scholars, practitioners, executives, and alumni to share research, experiences, and conversation about relationships among women at work, with a particular focus on building effective, supportive collaborations across differences in race, generation, and geography.

Our first symposium was part of a series of activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of women’s admission to the traditional two-year MBA program at HBS. It highlighted research and ideas about gender in organizations and brought together scholars and practitioners for thoughtful, forward-looking discussion.