Carnegie Mellon University
August 20, 2014

Press Release: Leading Researchers on Gender and Women in the Workplace To Convene at Carnegie Mellon, Sept. 4-5

"Women in the Workplace: Navigating the Labyrinth" To Share Latest Findings in Gender Inequality, Stereotypes and Cultural Issues

Contacts: Abby Simmons / 412-268-4290 / abbysimmons@cmu.edu                   
                Mark Burd / 412-268-3486 / mdburd@andrew.cmu.edu

PITTSBURGH—Despite recent decades of social and economic changes that have transformed the modern workplace and workforce, gender inequality continues to persist in business, politics and other cultural settings. Current studies by leading academic researchers across North America are now better defining the causes of gender inequality, demonstrating the societal effects and offering potential solutions for the marketplace. Bringing together this vanguard of academics and research, Carnegie Mellon University is hosting a symposium titled "Women in the Workplace: Navigating the Labyrinth" on Sept. 4-5.

Women in the Workplace: Navigating the Labyrinth will be hosted by faculty at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, with financial support from the Carnegie Bosch Institute at CMU and the Women's Leadership Initiative at Georgetown University. Proceedings have been organized by CMU's Laurie Weingart, senior associate dean of education and the Carnegie Bosch Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at the Tepper School of Business; Linda Babcock, the James M. Walton Professor of Economics at CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences; and Lise Vesterlund, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Economics at Pitt.

This conference will consist of a series of presentations that will provide an in-depth look at current research including:

  • "The Framing Effects of Gender in the Workplace" by Cecilia Ridgeway, Stanford University;
  • "Evidence on Self-Stereotyping and the Contribution of Ideas" by Katie Coffman, Ohio State University;
  • "Gender Differences in the Demand and Supply of Non-Promotable Tasks" by Linda Babcock, Lise Vesterlund and Laurie Weingart;
  • "Men as Cultural Ideals: How Cultural Values Shape Gender Stereotypes" by Amy Cuddy, Harvard University;
  • "Nudging Gender Equality" by Iris Bohnet, Harvard;
  • "Can Women Negotiate?" by Muriel Niederle, Stanford;
  • "Immigrants and Gender Roles: Assimilation vs. Culture" by Francine Blau, Cornell University; and
  • "Are Women Getting Through the Labyrinth? Abandon the Wishful Thinking and Consider the Real Good News" by Alice Eagly, Northwestern University.

The conference also will include a mid-day "data blitz" session that will provide attendees with an abridged presentation of research by more than a dozen additional authors, including: Brandy Aven, Carnegie Mellon; Julia Bear, Stony Brook University; Monica Biernat, University of Kansas; Rosalind Chow, Carnegie Mellon; Rachel Croson, University of Texas at Arlington; Robin Ely, Harvard; Katherine Milkman, University of Pennsylvania; Alexandra Mislin, American University; Lindsay Page, Pitt; Maria Recalde, International Food Policy Research Institute; Colleen Stuart, Johns Hopkins University; Alice Stuhlmacher, DePaul University; Cathy Tinsley, Georgetown; Amanda Weirup, Carnegie Mellon; Anita Woolley, Carnegie Mellon; and Tiantian Yang, Duke University.

The program will include a preview of the Carnegie Mellon Leadership and Negotiation Academy for Women, the first program of its kind to look at critical leadership skills through a negotiation lens, which will begin its second cohort in September 2014. This program, which consists of six two-day modules was co-founded by Linda Babcock and is offered through Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business Executive Education program in partnership with the H. John Heinz III College.

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