Iris Bohnet

Harvard Book Store welcomes Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School IRIS BOHNET and Co-Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School MAX H. BAZERMAN for a discussion of Bohnet's book What Works: Gender Equality by Design. This event is co-sponsored by the following Harvard Kennedy School programs: the Women and Public Policy Program, Behavioral Insights Group, Center for Public Leadership, and Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century.

About What Works

Gender equality is a moral and a business imperative. But unconscious bias holds us back, and de-biasing people’s minds has proven to be difficult and expensive. Diversity training programs have had limited success, and individual effort alone often invites backlash. Behavioral design offers a new solution. By de-biasing organizations instead of individuals, we can make smart changes that have big impacts. Presenting research-based solutions, Iris Bohnet hands us the tools we need to move the needle in classrooms and boardrooms, in hiring and promotion, benefiting businesses, governments, and the lives of millions.

What Works is built on new insights into the human mind. It draws on data collected by companies, universities, and governments in Australia, India, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, and other countries, often in randomized controlled trials. It points out dozens of evidence-based interventions that could be adopted right now and demonstrates how research is addressing gender bias, improving lives and performance. What Works shows what more can be done—often at shockingly low cost and surprisingly high speed.

Praise

"Pathbreaking work, and packed with insights on every page. Bohnet has produced, at once, the best book ever written on behavioral science and discrimination, and a major contribution to behaviorally informed policymaking as a whole. Her book promises to change both private and public institutions—and to improve individual lives." —Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University and coauthor of Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness