Iris Bohnet is a behavioral economist, a leading researcher into gender bias, and Harvard Kennedy School's academic dean. She’s got some tough advice for the world’s biggest governments, corporations, and organizations: Stop wasting money on traditional diversity training programs, because they don’t work. But Dean Bohnet tells host Thoko Moyo that there's also good news: By focusing on fixing processes rather than people, we can create workarounds that solve for our stubborn biases.
Iris Bohnet is a behavioral economist, a leading researcher into gender bias, and Harvard Kennedy School's academic dean. She’s got some tough advice for the world’s biggest governments, corporations, and organizations: Stop wasting money on traditional diversity training programs, because they don’t work. But Dean Bohnet tells host Thoko Moyo that there's also good news: By focusing on fixing processes rather than people, we can create workarounds that solve for our stubborn biases.
Bohnet is also co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program at HKS and her research combines insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society, primarily with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. She is the author of the award-winning book What Works: Gender Equality by Design, and was named one of the "Most Influential People in Gender Policy" by apolitical in 2018 and 2019.
For more about the Women and Policy Policy Program (WAPPP), please visit: https://wappp.hks.harvard.edu/.
PolicyCast is hosted by Harvard Kennedy School Associate Dean of Communications Thoko Moyo. The show is produced by Ralph Ranalli and Susan Hughes.