About Us

Shelley J. Correll
Shelley Correll
Faculty Director & Principal Investigator
We must invest in broad collaborative research efforts that draw on a wide range of skill sets and knowledge bases to diagnose the mechanisms that allow gender inequality to persist in our organizations and to evaluate interventions to get beyond the barriers to full equality. 

Our Mission

The VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab at Stanford University generates foundational research to advance women's leadership by diagnosing barriers, developing and evaluating interventions to get beyond barriers, and disseminates research-based solutions by bridging the gap between research and practice.

We are conscious of the need to advance women across multiple marginalizations/identities/contexts, and strive for our research and interventions to be inclusive and intersectional. We commit to these practices in analyzing not only gender, but seeking to address other salient social identities like race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, ability, sexual orientation, nationality, etc.

Our Approach

The Lab strives to reach our goal by embracing a “small wins” model for reducing gender biases. Key to this model are identifying barriers to women’s advancement, sharing knowledge with organizational change agents, and codesigning and evaluating solutions. Those small wins motivate further action and are the building blocks to larger organizational change. 

Our "small wins" model for creating sustainable change

Small Wins graphic shows a model for sustainable change that includes: Educate (provide a gender framework), Diagnose bias (assess bias inputs), Develop tools (co-design solutions with managers), Intervene (roll out change to groups), Evaluate (measure "small wins")

 

Read more about our change model 

Our Story

In 2013, Stanford University provided seed funding for the creation of a center with a focus on women’s leadership to be led by Professor Shelley Correll and Lori Mackenzie, and to be incubated within The Clayman Institute for Gender Research. A dynamic research agenda and a vibrant corporate affiliate program were launched under Correll's leadership. In 2016, Correll received a $1.5 million gift from VMware for the Seeds of Change research project - an educational research initiative to provide tools and frameworks for high school girls of all backgrounds to persist and advance to leadership. In 2018, the center was endowed by VMware, formally launching the new Lab and its mission to establish a long-term research agenda to accelerate change.

Learn more about our vision for change...