Research & Articles
Siri’s life’s work is to advance gender equality in the workplace using data-driven insights. At the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School, her behavioral science-based academic research focuses on identifying, testing, and documenting solutions that work to close existing gender gaps. Siri’s experimental projects typically involve large-scale randomized controlled trials in real organizations to test the effectiveness of specific interventions that redesign work practices and/or de-bias structures and processes. Siri is especially passionate about ensuring that the knowledge generated through such rigorous testing reaches organizational leaders and practitioners, so she enjoys sharing her work with the general public through articles, books, and speaking engagements. See Siri's Google Scholar here.
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Norms shape individual and collective behaviors and represent organizational culture. When set intentionally, they can also ground teams and create fairer workplaces in times of uncertainty.
A new field experiment provides a promising proof of concept that behaviorally designed diversity training can work to change hiring outcomes
READIn this article, drawing on recent research, the authors suggest that organizations can improve their decisions by making DEI more immediately obvious, or salient, to managers immediately before they need to make consequential decisions about hiring, promotions, and performance evaluation.
READThe authors illustrate three specific types of tolls outsiders face in organizations — opportunity, influence, and scrutiny tolls — and reframe them as negotiating opportunities for individuals and as focal points to push for organizational learning and change.
READThe authors have identified a simple and straightforward concept: the gender proportionality principle (GPP), which stipulates that a given level in an organization should aim to reflect the gender composition of the level immediately below it.
READThis report’s peer-reviewed recommendations offer solutions for CEOs, C-Suite leaders, and other business executives or equity advocates to make the tech industry more inclusive.
READIn this editorial, the authors discuss organizational DEI goals as an evidence-based tool that can address both the will (motivation) and the way (cognition, skills, and tools) of behavior change.
READA report examining the contextual features that can impact everyday decisions and actions in the workplace and showcasing strategies rooted in behavioral insights that employers can implement and test in their workplaces to create more equitable environments for all.
READFrom credit card interest rates to listing the calorie content on restaurant menus, data disclosure can be a powerful tool to change behavior. And when done right, the collection, analysis, and disclosure of diversity data holds the promise of being a powerful lever for progress.
READActionable lessions from a case study of the 50:50 Equality Project, whereby a team of BBC journalists dramatically changed gender representation in the media worldwide.
READA guide for brave CEOs and bold boards to help them improve corporate culture, support their employees, and make their business more secure and profitable in the long term by fostering greater diversity and inclusion.
READThis white paper (featured in Snap Inc.’s Diversity Annual Report 2020) argues that U.S. tech companies should manage the challenge of increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and women’s representation the same way they manage all of their other business-related challenges: through performance targets with deadlines and rewards, underpinned by personal accountability.
READArticle in What Works: Evidence-Based Ideas to Increase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace (Guide)
Small samples negatively affect the quality of the information we use when making group-based estimates. This article explores ways to overcome the so-called small-N problem through behavioral science-based strategies.
READCase study following Ros Atkins, a news program presenter at the BBC, in his quest to reach 50:50 gender representation first on his own show, and later across all of the BBC’s journalism globally through the 50:50 Project.
READFinal report of an 18-month research project examining how the components of industry culture, organizational practices and policies, and patterns of interpersonal interaction affect full gender inclusion in venture capital as well as gender equity in venture funding.
READThe world of venture capital can learn from orchestra directors, who have combatted gender bias through blind recruitment processes.
READCase study chronicling a successful multi-year, multi-stakeholder effort to increase the representation of women on the boards of the UK’s FTSE 100 companies.
READThe BBC’s 50:50 Project has been remarkably successful at increasing the representation of women in journalism. An analysis of its impact shows that meaningful change on gender equality can be achieved by embracing a growth mindset, providing a simple and tangible tool for achieving change without mandating it, and giving colleagues agency and ownership over the process.
READBehavioral science offers a proven roadmap to sustainable, systemic improvement on gender diversity in the venture capital industry. Now, it is time for venture capitalists to stop trying to change hearts and minds and start redesigning their firms.
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