Common missteps in designing gender equality initiatives - and how to avoid them

Trying to “fix” women rather than systems. Failing to go beyond describing the numbers. Being overly optimistic about progress. These are three missteps that are often made when designing and implementing gender equality initiatives.

In this special talk hosted by the King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and King’s Business School, Professor Michelle Ryan, director of our sister institute at the Australian National University, analysed these common missteps and revealed findings from new research that proposes alternative ways of approaching gender equality initiatives.

About Michelle

Professor Michelle Ryan is a world-renowned gender equality expert, Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology, and the inaugural Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the Australian National University.

Her work centres on understanding the psychological processes underlying workplace gender inequality and designing and implementing innovative and evidence-based interventions to increase gender equality.

Michelle, along with her colleague Professor Alex Haslam, coined the term “glass cliff” – the phenomenon that describes how women and members of other minority groups are often placed in risky leadership positions, where the chances of failure are higher than usual.