Welcome to the fourth annual Gender & Work research symposium. This year’s theme, "Talking the Walk: Possibilities for Change through Dialogue, Expression, and Narrative," addresses the power of words:  how what we say and how we say it—as well as what we don’t say—can facilitate or impede change toward greater workplace equality.  Our title recalls the colloquialism "walking the talk," a familiar statement that suggests moving from discourse to action is a shift from "mere" speech toward "real" change.  But we know that language—from how we have conversations to the stories we share to that which is deemed unspeakable—is consequential.

As Rakesh Khurana, Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at HBS and Dean of Harvard College said in a recent interview, "Words matter. They shape our opportunities, our self-perceptions, and our possible futures. They can open doors, and they can shut them. They can help build a community that belongs to all of us, or they can delineate difference and assert privilege or create boundaries between people."

The symposium will examine 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.  

The symposium will be held on the Harvard Business School campus in Boston, MA on March 31 and April 1, 2016.

Organizers:

Robin J. Ely
Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration
Senior Associate Dean for Culture and Community

Amy J.C. Cuddy
Associate Professor of Business Administration, Hellman Faculty Fellow ​