New approach to reducing gender inequality at work

A new approach for reducing gender inequality in the workplace has shown promise in a pilot project at several companies. It combines existing tools and adds an evaluation of places where biases could creep in to a company's procedures. At a time when many companies are feeling pressured to report on and improve gender inequality within the workforce, a Stanford sociologist is finding success with a new method for reducing the kind of bias that leads to these inequalities. Stanford sociologist Shelley Correll and her team have found promising methods for reducing gender inequalities in the workplace. (Image credit: Courtesy Shelley Correll) In a recently published paper in Gender & Society , Shelley Correll , director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research , explains the method, which she and her team piloted and found successful while working with several technology companies over the last three years. The method, which Correll dubs "a small wins model," focuses on educating managers and workers about bias, diagnosing where gender bias could enter their company's hiring, promotion or other evaluation practices and working with the company's leaders to develop tools that help measurably reduce bias and inequality. "The change we can realistically expect to produce in any one instance will be small, imperfect and incomplete," Correll wrote.