Creating a Level Playing Field

Create effective workplaces where all people can thrive.

Shelley Correll

In many ways, the playing field of work is still tilted in favor of men. Stanford Professor and Faculty Director, Stanford VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab, Dr. Shelley Correll explains how errors in judgment and evaluation contribute to a gap in opportunities for women. Evaluations are the gatekeepers to opportunities, promotions, and recognition. It’s natural to look for shortcuts with so much information to process every day. However, when you rely on your gut instincts as a shortcut to make decisions, mistakes can happen. In this talk, Correll explains how to create solutions that scrutinize the ways individuals and organizations make decisions about people and relationships in order to reduce errors. Doing so, you'll create environments where people have opportunities to do their best and be recognized for their work.

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View Creating a Level Playing Field Resources

Project Implicit: This Project Implicit association test reveals how much unconscious bias users have against or towards particular groups.
Winning the Talent War for Women: A Harvard Business School research project explains how Deloitte fostered a more inclusive workforce and reduced turnover among women by reducing stereotypical biases.
Why Gender Equality Stalled: A New York Times opinion piece explains how stereotypes play a role in stalling progress toward gender equality.
Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution: Author Cali Ressler explains how "results-only" work environments can make employees happier while delivering improved business results.
The Corporate Lattice: Achieving High Performance In the Changing World of Work: Authors Cathleen Benko and Molly Anderson argue for thinking about work as a "lattice" rather than a "ladder" — a structure that supports a flexible, collaborative, and dynamic work environment.

View Creating a Level Playing Field Biographies

Shelley J. Correll

FACULTY DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, STANFORD VMWARE WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LAB

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

PROFESSOR, BY COURTESY, OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

VOICE & INFLUENCE EDUCATION MODULE PRESENTER

Shelley Correll is professor of sociology and organizational behavior at Stanford University and Faculty Director, Principal Investigator, and Founder, Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab. Her expertise is in the areas of gender, workplace dynamics and organizational culture. She has received numerous national awards for her research on the “motherhood penalty,” research that demonstrates how motherhood influences the workplace evaluations, pay and job opportunities of mothers. Professor Correll recently led a nationwide, interdisciplinary project on “redesigning work” that evaluates how workplaces structures and practices can reconfigured to be simultaneously more inclusive and more innovative. She is also studying how gender stereotypes and organizational practices affect the entry and retention of women in technical professions and how the growth of the craft beer industry affects the founding and success of women brewers. She is currently writing a book called Delivering on Diversity: Eliminating Bias and Spurring Innovation.