“I don’t want to change people—I want to give people the tools to change themselves,” said Prof. Iris Bohnet, a renowned behavioural economist from Harvard University, during her visit to the University of Luxembourg, paraphrasing a British journalist from a case study she discussed. As a leading advocate for gender equality, Bohnet shared her insights on fostering fairer workplaces, emphasising that true equity can only be achieved by transforming systems rather than simply trying to change individual mindsets.
Bohnet pointed out that many workplace inequities are ingrained in institutional structures, shaped by the role models we see—or don’t see—from an early age. “When it comes to gender equity, the biggest challenge today isn’t hiring—in many professions, we’ve made great strides there. The real issue is career equity,” she noted. Although more women are entering the workforce at entry levels, they remain underrepresented in leadership positions. Addressing this imbalance requires transforming institutional frameworks to foster equal opportunities across all career stages. “It’s extremely difficult to shift mindsets because many of these heuristics, stereotypes, and in-group preferences have developed over generations,” Bohnet said, advocating for structural changes that promote fairness without necessitating a complete overhaul of individual perspectives.
Reflecting on her own career, Bohnet recounted a pivotal moment when she accepted a job at Harvard without negotiating her salary, only to later realise that many of her male colleagues had done so. “I didn’t realise at the time that many of my male colleagues had negotiated their offers,” she said. This experience led her later on in her career, as an academic dean, to redesign negotiation processes to ensure fairness and reduce gender disparities. “The more unclear a situation is, the more we tend to fill in the gaps with stereotypes,” she explained, underscoring the need for clear, structured guidelines in decision-making.
In her book What Works: Gender Equality by Design, Bohnet highlights the importance of leadership in fostering inclusivity. “Tone from the top is important, and a good leader can also serve as a role model,” she explained. Leaders can promote inclusivity through small yet impactful changes, such as rethinking seating arrangements in meetings to avoid insider-outsider dynamics. “People take cues from how leaders behave—whether they interrupt others, include everyone, or even how meetings are structured,” she added, stressing that leadership behaviour sets the tone for a more inclusive environment.
During her visit, Bohnet praised the University of Luxembourg’s mentoring programme, noting that research shows women who receive mentoring are more productive and experience better career outcomes. She emphasised that gender equity cannot be fully achieved at work without addressing inequalities at home. “As long as women are the primary caregivers—whether for children, the elderly, or the ill—there will be a gender imbalance,” she said. This imbalance allows men to commit more hours to work, leading to career advantages. Bohnet highlighted Scandinavian countries like Sweden, where incentive schemes encourage fathers to take a larger share of parental leave. However, she noted cultural differences, pointing to Japan, where, despite parental leave policies, men’s participation remains below 10%.
When discussing how to measure gender equality, Bohnet advocates a pragmatic approach. “Eliminating the gender pay gap is relatively straightforward and not particularly controversial,” she said. However, she cautioned against striving for a strict 50/50 gender balance in all fields, acknowledging that such targets may not reflect the reality of gender distributions across different disciplines. Instead, Bohnet supports “proportionality,” which aligns gender representation with the demographics of each field. “If 30% of PhD students in economics are women, then it’s reasonable to aim for a similar proportion of female faculty in that field,” she explained.
Bohnet also underlined the significance of addressing the underrepresentation of men in fields such as nursing and early childhood education. “It’s important for boys to see men excelling in writing, just as it’s vital for girls to observe women succeeding in mathematics,” she noted, highlighting that gender equality initiatives must take into account the roles of both women and men across all sectors of society. Only then can workplaces become truly fair and equitable for everyone.
The goal of Bohnet’s new book, Make Work Fair, (forthcoming in January 2025) is to help organisations embed fairness into everything they do and move beyond programmatic approaches (such as diversity training popular in the United States) to structural interventions. She also encourages organisations to measure whether what they are doing has any impact. An experimenter at heart, her favorite approach is the randomised controlled trial, and she hopes that her and others’ research will inspire companies and governments to employ a more rigorous approach to their people decisions.
Iris Bohnet visited the University of Luxembourg as part of the lecture series “Women leaders“, organised by the University Gender equality office.
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