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Spring 2011
February
Thursday, February 3 - WAPPP Seminar
The Career Cost of Family
Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, Harvard University
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
Goldin will present her paper concerning the career costs of family and how these costs have changed in occupations at the upper end of the education and income spectrums. Career costs of family include penalties to labor supply behavior that is more compatible with having a family, such as job interruptions, short hours, and part-time work. Self-employment and ownership often require more hours of work and are, therefore, less conducive to family, although self-employment often enables shorter hours and greater flexibility. The study examines the pecuniary penalties for these family-related amenities, how women have responded to them, and how the penalties have changed over time. The career costs of family vary greatly across the high-end careers studied. More important, perhaps, is that the penalties to family-conducive behaviors have largely decreased over time. We conclude that many professions at the high end (e.g., pharmacy, optometry, veterinary medicine) have experienced an increase in workplace flexibility driven often by exogenous changes but also endogenously because of increased numbers of women. Some sectors, notably in the corporate and financial areas, have lagged.
Thursday, February 10 - WAPPP Seminar
Who is Governing Whom? Executives, Governance and the Structure of Generosity in Large US Firms
Christopher Marquis, Associate Professor of Business Administration, HBS
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
We examine how organizational structure influences corporate strategies over which senior leaders have significant discretion. Corporate philanthropy is our setting to study how the presence of a key differentiated structural element, the corporate foundation, constrains the idiosyncratic influences of individual executives and directors. Our analysis of the Fortune 500 firms during the period 1996 to 2006 shows that CEO tenure, social embeddedness of directors and gender composition of the executive team and board of directors, all affect corporate philanthropic contributions. We also find that organization structure constrains the philanthropic influence of board members, but not executives, a result that is contrary to what existing theory would predict. We discuss how these results advance understanding of how organizational structure and corporate leadership characteristics interact, and how organizations can be more effectively designed to realize the strategic value of corporate social responsibility activities.
Friday, February 11, 2011
This is What Equality Looks Like, The World We Want for Women and Girls
Fifth Annual Harvard Women’s Law Association Conference
Friday, February 11 | 9am – 5pm
Ropes Gray Room | Harvard Law School
Conference Website | Registration | Schedule
Tuesday, February 15
Film: "Seeking Happily Ever After: One Generation’s Struggle to Redefine the Fairytale…"
Introduction and comments by the Director/Producer, Michelle Cove
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room | 4-6pm
There are more single women in their 30s today than at any other time in history, according to a recent US Census. Why now? Are women redefining happily ever after? Filmmakers Michelle Cove and Kerry David decided to find out. They went underneath the bubbly surface of Sex and the City to talk to hundreds of single women and find out what's really going on. Film website.
Thursday, February 17 - WAPPP Seminar
A Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups
Christopher Chabris, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Union College
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
Psychologists have repeatedly shown that a single statistical factor—often called “general intelligence”—emerges from the correlations among people's performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks. But no one has systematically examined whether a similar kind of “collective intelligence” exists for groups of people. In two studies with 699 individuals, working in groups of two to five, we find converging evidence of a general collective intelligence factor that explains a group's performance on a wide variety of tasks. This “c factor” is not strongly correlated with the average or maximum individual intelligence of group members but is correlated with the average social sensitivity of group members, the equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking, and the proportion of females in the group. The talk will compare collective intelligence to individual intelligence and discuss the broader implications of measurable collective intelligence. (Joint work with Anita W. Woolley, Thomas W. Malone, Alexander Pentland, & Nada Hashmi)
Thursday, February 24 - WAPPP Seminar
Inclusive Security
Swanee Hunt, Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer of Public Policy, HKS
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
Sustainable peace requires the full participation of women at all stages of the peace process-yet they have been largely excluded from formal efforts to develop and implement fresh, workable solutions to seemingly intractable struggles. Their involvement in these mechanisms, which prevent conflict, stop war, and stabilize regions damaged by warfare, is essential.
March
Wednesday, March 2
Ending Female Genital Cutting: A Way that Works
Gerry Mackie, University of California San Diego
4:10-5:30 pm | 124 Mount Auburn, Suite 200-North, Rm 226
Gerry Mackie will report on the theory and practice of his work with the West African NGO Tostan since 1998, and UNICEF since 2004, in organizing collective abandonment of female genital cutting and other harmful social practices. His approach combines historical sociology, simple game theory, simple network analysis, social norms, moral psychology, and values deliberations. It was recently declared the "common approach" in a document published by major donor-country development agencies and intergovernmental organizations. The organized change of social norms in the community through values deliberations is a good way to solve some development problems.
Part of the Ash Center's Democracy Seminar Series and co-sponsored by the Women in Public Policy Program
Thursday, March 3 - WAPPP Seminar
The WomanStats Database: A Resource for Researchers, Students, Advocates, and Policymakers
Valerie Hudson, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
The WomanStats Project began its database component ten years ago. The purpose was to compile information that would allow project researchers to trace the linkage between the security of women and the security of states. The database now codes for over 300 variables for 174 countries, with over 110,000 data points. In addition to coding statistical data, we also code qualitative data on practices and information on laws within the society. We have created a series of innovative ordinal scales and mappings to facilitate aggregate testing. The database is freely accessible online, and is ranked in the top 2% of all websites, according to Google. This presentation will walk you through the capabilities of the database.
Thursday, March 3 - Friday, March 4, 2011
“Driving Change, Shaping Lives: Gender in the Developing World”
Radcliffe Conference
This conference will bring together leading experts from different fields, countries, and perspectives at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to explore the complex roles of gender in the developing world. Academic scholarship will be interwoven with practical experience as scholars, practitioners, organizers, and political leaders engage with one another in panel sessions on health, education, shifting populations, politics, and technology and media. Discussions will investigate intersections among these topics, crossing boundaries both conceptual and geographic.
The conference is presented in cooperation with the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Conference website. Registration is required by February 23.
Tuesday, March 8 - 100th International Women's Day
International Women's Day Breakfast and film screening
8:30-10am, Harvard Kennedy School
Allison Dining Room, Taubman 5th floor
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, WAPPP is premiering the our new film, Gender Equality: The Smart Thing To Do during a special International Women's Day breakfast. This event will feature HKS Academic Dean Mary Jo Bane, women faculty from across Harvard – including Professors Nava Ashraf, Hannah Riley Bowles, Martha Chen, Amy Cuddy, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Jane Mansbridge, Kathleen McGinn, Monica Toft and Iris Bohnet – students and other members of our community.
Wednesday, March 9 - International Women's Day celebration
Film Screening: "Left on Pearl"
With speaker HKS faculty member, Jane Mansbridge, featured in the film
4-6pm | WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 102
On March 6, 1971, International Women's Day marchers turned LEFT ON PEARL and took over a Harvard University building at 888 Memorial Drive, Cambridge declaring it a Women's Center. The women occupied the building for 10 days. This action transformed participants lives and sparked the creation of many still vibrant community based projects. The film, LEFT ON PEARL, highlights this significant but hidden chapter in Second Wave feminist history.
Thursday, March 10 - WAPPP Seminar
Economic Competitiveness: What's Talent Got to Do With It?
Anne Weisberg, Director, Deloitte
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
Economic value increasingly is based on collaboration, networks, innovation and creativity-in other words, on talent. Those organizations that can harness the full potential of all their talent, including women, by seeing the intersection between high performance and career-life fit are those with the competitive advantage in the 21st century. Learn how the corporate lattice model is better suited to this new reality.
Thursday, March 24 - WAPPP Seminar
The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect: Why Do Congresswomen Outperform Congressmen?
Christopher Berry, Assistant Professor, Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
In this paper, Berry and Anzia argue that the process of selection into political office is different for women than it is for men, which results in important differences in the performance of male and female legislators once they are elected. If voters are biased against female candidates, only the most talented, hardest working female candidates will succeed in the electoral process. Furthermore, if women perceive there to be sex discrimination in the electoral process, or if they underestimate their qualifications for office relative to men, then only the most qualified, politically ambitious females will emerge as candidates. Berry and Anzia argue that when either or both forms of sex-based selection are present, the women who are elected to office will perform better, on average, than their male counterparts. They test this cen- tral implication of their theory by using legislators’ success in delivering federal spending to their home districts as the primary measure of performance. They find that congresswomen secure rough- ly 9 percent more spending from federal discretionary programs than congressmen. This amounts to a premium of about $49 million per year for districts that send a woman to Capitol Hill. Finally, Berry and Anzia find that women’s superiority in securing particularistic benefits does not hurt their performance in policymaking: women also sponsor and cosponsor more bills their male colleagues.
Thursday, March 31 - WAPPP Seminar
Strengthening Women’s Voices: Senegal Women's and Civic Journalism Project
Shirley Burchfield, Vice President of World Education
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
Dr. Shirley Burchfield, Vice President of World Education, Inc. (WEI) a non-profit organization based in Boston, will discuss the Senegal Women's and Civic Journalism Project. This program builds on World Education’s experience for over a decade working with local groups in Senegal to promote peace and prosperity. She will describe the role that women have played in these efforts to improve civil society, promote peace and improve community conditions.
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April
Tuesday, April 5
Women, Islam, and Reform in the Middle East
Dr. Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy; Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; and Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, T102 | 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Isobel Coleman is Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, where she focuses on the Middle East and South Asia. She is the director of CFR’s Civil Society, Markets and Democracy Initiative. She is also the director of the Council’s Women and Foreign Policy Program. Her areas of expertise include democratization, civil society and economic development, regional gender issues, educational reform, and microfinance. She is the author and co-author of numerous publications, including Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House, 2010), Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President (Brookings Institution Press, 2008) and Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Press, 2006). Her writings have also appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, and online venues such as the Huffington Post. She is a frequent speaker at academic, business, and policy conferences. In 2010, she served as a track leader for the Clinton Global Initiative.
Part of the Middle East Initiative Speaker Series. Co-Sponsored by the Women in Public Policy Program
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Thursday, April 7 - WAPPP Seminar
Stopping the Cover-up about Women and Men Servicemembers and Veterans: What Is Really Happening and What We Are Not Supposed to Know
Paula Caplan, Voices of Diversity Project Director, DuBois Institute, Harvard University; WAPPP Fellow, HKS
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
Aimed at breaking the silence about war and the emotional damage it causes, When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home is a book that strives to transform the way in which society responds to war veterans. Virtually every major problem veterans face is affected in important ways by expectations based on the vet's biological sex and society's and the military's expectations about femininity and masculinity. Caplan’s book argues that the labeling of war veterans as mentally ill due to war trauma is both inaccurate and damaging. Caplan suggests that vets be welcomed home not with medication and/or psychotherapy, but with open arms and open hearts.
Thursday, April 7
Will the First Madame President Please Stand Up? Campaigning on Your Story
Littauer 230 | 6-9:00pm
83% of the U.S. Senate, 84% of the U.S. House of Representatives, and 78% of Statewide Executives have one thing in common: they're all men! In a country that's 51% female, there's something wrong here! Are you or your close friends politically motivated members of the Harvard community? Do you want to learn about closing this major gap in our nation's representation? If so, come be a part of an inspiring and informative evening. The Kennedy School wants to know… Will the First Madame President Please Stand Up? Campaigning on Your Story. (All genders welcome and encouraged!)
PANEL DISCUSSION
Julie Petrick, EMILY’s List
Beth Bye (D-CT)
Marilinda Garcia (R-NH)
Moderated by: Sarah Wald, Chief of Staff, Dean Ellwood
TRAINING: Julie Petrick (EMILY’s List)
RSVP Required
Co-sponsored by the Democratic Caucus, Republican Caucus, Progressive Caucus, Women and Gender Caucus, Human Rights PIC, Electoral Politics PIC, KSSG, Women and Public Policy Program, Office of Career Advancement, and Center for Public Leadership
Friday and Saturday, April 8-9
Black Policy Conference
Harvard Kennedy School
Over the past seven years, the Black Policy Conference has grown into a leading policy-driven forum addressing issues that affect communities within Africa and the African Diaspora at large. This year's conference, "Igniting the Flame: Reunite | Revitalize | Realize," strives to reunite the African Diaspora and revitalize a coherent policy agenda in order to realize sustainable outcomes. Through this year's conference, we hope to bring to the attention of our participants a number of real-world examples of policy solutions that can work from the ground up in order to address the problems facing Black communities today.
The Black Policy Conference is the leading policy driven forum to address the issues affecting Black communities. The conference provides an opportunity for the convergence of the world’ s greatest minds and practitioners with the hope and intent of finding sustainable solutions for issues facing Black communities.
Thursday, April 14 - WAPPP Seminar
When the Glass Ceiling Gets Thicker: Risk and Gender Diversity in the Executive Suite
Sreedhari D. Desai, WAPPP Research Fellow & Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
It is 23 years since the expression “glass ceiling” was coined by the Wall Street Journal to describe the invisible barrier that limits women’s advancement to the top of the corporate hierarchy; and, it is 13 years since the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission published its official report documenting that although women held 45.7 percent of America’s jobs, only five percent of senior managers were women. In spite of the recommendations made by the Commission thirteen years ago, women in corporate America continue to be underrepresented at the top. In this talk, Sreedhari will examine how the presence of high levels of firm-specific risk may be one of the factors responsible for the thickening of the glass ceiling. She will present results from an archival study as well as a laboratory study and offer some conclusions.
Tuesday, April 19
Sex & Sustainability: Linking young people, sexual & reproductive health, and our global environment
6:30-8 pm | Littauer 280 | Dinner will be served.
This year the world’s population is expected to reach 7 billion—nearly half of it under the age of twenty-five. At the same time, 215 million women—the majority of them young women—want contraceptives but cannot access them. Learn how the health of our global environment intersects with the fulfillment of young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the unprecedented opportunity they present to combat gender inequity, poverty, environmental degradation, and climate change around the world.
Featured Panelists:
- Daisy Mañaga, GoJoven Sexual & Reproductive Health Youth Fellow and Conservationist from Belize
- Rev. Robert Murphy, Sierra Club
- Callie Simon, Pathfinder International
- Rebecca Wadler, Izaak Walton League of America
Sponsored by: WAPPP, Sierra Club, Pathfinder International, Izaak Walton League of America, and The Women & Gender Caucus
Thursday, April 21 - WAPPP Seminar
The Closing of the Gender Gap in Education: What is the State of Women’s Employment, Marriage, and Motherhood Gaps in Developing Countries?
Martina Viarengo, Research Officer, Education and Skills Program of the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics; WAPPP Fellow, HKS
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
During this seminar Martina will examine many dimensions of gender disparity for a sample of 40 countries. We start by documenting the reversal of the gender gap in education and to rank countries by the year in which the gender education gap reversed. Then we turn to an analysis of the state of other gaps facing women. We show that gaps still exist in these spheres in many countries, although there is significant heterogeneity among countries in terms of the size of the gaps and the speed at which they are changing.
Thursday, April 28 - WAPPP Seminar
Microfinance: Empowering Women, Transforming Lives
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking
WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman 1st floor | 11:40am-1pm
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, will discuss the evolution of the microfinance industry in the face of increasing commercialization. As Microfinance becomes much more than microcredit, Women’s World Banking, the largest global microfinance network, remains committed to providing Microfinance institutions with innovative products to remain centered on women and, in the process, prove the business case for investing in women. In this time of transition, Ms. Iskenderian will explain how microfinance institutions can stay mission-focused and how Women’s World Banking supports initiatives that ensure that microfinance keeps women at its center: as clients, innovators and leaders.
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