The Paradox of Gender-Conscious Diversity Initiatives: How Accentuating Gender Differences May Perpetuate Workplace Gender Inequality

In August 2017, James Damore, a Google engineer, circulated a memo arguing that women are naturally less suited to leadership positions. Indeed, women still comprise only 20% of technology positions at Google and only 7% of FTSE 100 CEOs in the UK. However, it is exactly these stereotypes and rigid ideas about gender differences endorsed by Damore - rather than a lack of natural abilities - that contributes to the underrepresentation of women in leadership and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). To combat these gender stereotypes, many organisations have implemented a range of workplace diversity initiatives.
Unfortunately, these initiatives, which typically have no evidence base, could themselves reinforce stereotypes, creating a vicious circle that maintains inequality. Like many organisations, Google highlights gender differences in many of its diversity initiatives, assuming that celebrating difference will benefit women (i.e., a gender-conscious approach). In this project, I suggest that, by highlighting gender differences, gender-conscious initiatives in particular send a tacit message that women are inherently different from men and that all women are similar. By doing so, they may further justify gender stereotypes, and thus women's underrepresentation in traditionally male domains.
I will test these hypotheses, as well as also explore strategies to avoid these unintended consequences. First, gender-conscious approaches that explicitly acknowledge differences in the socialisation of men and women may help reduce people's tendency to attribute gender differences to innate factors. Second, gender-conscious approaches that embrace women's contributions, while also acknowledging that individual women vary, may reduce people's tendency to make generalisations across all women.
In summary, this research project has the following aims:
(1) Examine whether gender-conscious diversity approaches lead to gender stereotyping.
(2) Examine whether gender-conscious approaches deter people from appointing women to leadership and STEM positions.
(3) Test two strategies to alleviate negative consequences of gender-conscious approaches.
Indeed, empirical research on different types of diversity initiatives, including those taking a gender-conscious approach, is limited and inconclusive. I am well-suited to examine these questions because of my past and ongoing research testing when diversity initiatives can backfire, when they are beneficial, and when their efficacy is mixed. However, no research thus far has directly examined the relationship between gender-conscious initiatives and women's workplace outcomes.
In collaboration with industry partners, I will conduct at least 7 studies across 3 phases of research using a range of methodologies and samples: experiments with working professionals in a range of industries and longitudinal field studies examining real-world outcomes with working professionals employed by my organisational partners. Across all phases, I will work with industry partners to develop the research questions and materials. In the final year, I will hold a workshop to disseminate the findings to partner organisations and key contacts in London.
Better understanding the impact of gender-conscious approaches has clear applications because it could transform how organisations implement diversity initiatives. For example, organisations could more carefully consider the language used on their websites about gender equality and tailor diversity trainings to focus on the importance of both group and individual identity, rather than focusing primarily on women's unique contributions. Developing close industry connections during the research project will also facilitate future opportunities to test organisation-wide field interventions.

This engaged research project has clear potential for impact on societal gender equality. To ensure it has the intended impact, we will engage in co-production of knowledge with our partner organisations both during the development and dissemination stages of the research. Although we have outlined a clear set of objectives in this grant, our partner organisations will be essential for helping us design these studies in a way that reflects real organisational initiatives and tests strategies that could feasibly be implemented in organisations after completion of the grant research. We will disseminate the research broadly through the traditional university routes (e.g., the University of Exeter press office) and through our partner organisations (see Pathways to Impact for detailed information). We envisage both direct and indirect beneficiaries outside of the academic community:

1. Our partner organisations (listed in Pathways to Impact): This research will shed light on whether diversity initiatives assumed to be effective for reducing gender equality are beneficial, or whether they may instead backfire. It will also explore ways to reduce any unintended consequences in order to give organisations guidelines for adjusting their approaches - indeed, this research could transform how our partner organisations, most of which are major organisations listed on the FTSE 100 or Fortune 500, implement their diversity initiatives. Specifically, they can more carefully consider the language used on their websites about gender equality and the way diversity training interventions are implemented. For example, they could tailor diversity trainings to focus on the importance of both group and individual identity, rather than focusing primarily on the group level (i.e., women's unique contributions). Developing these close connections during the research project will also facilitate future research opportunities to test organisation-wide field interventions across different industries, even beyond the duration of this grant.

2. Other international organisations and institutions interested in increasing gender equality: Because our partner organisations employ thousands of people globally and span a range of industries, changing norms within these organisations could influence the diversity initiatives implemented at other organisations as well through wide dissemination of the research and buy-in from those at high levels of our partner organisations.

3. Diversity managers, human resources networks, and women's networks: Human resources networks, diversity managers, and organisational women's networks are clear beneficiaries who can use their influence to change organisational practices once they have evidence-based guidelines. Some of the relevant beneficiaries include the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Business in the Community, the Professional Women's Network, the Women in Business Network, and the Diversity Group.

4. Women and the general public more broadly: Diversity approaches do not only impact organisations - they permeate the culture of society and impact people's daily lives. Consider the extent to which the popular psychology book "Men Are From Mars, Women are From Venus" has pervaded popular culture and influenced conversations about gender differences. These ideas impact people's underlying understanding of gender and can then influence what roles they believe men and women should perform in society. The takeaway messages of my research about valuing women without reifying gender stereotypes could have a broader impact on society in terms of changing people's language around gender and differences. By disseminating this research to the general public through the media and popular science articles and talks (see Pathways to Impact), people may reconsider how their assumptions about gender can have a negative impact.