The Women and Public Policy Program’s faculty, research fellows, and students are committed to advancing women and gender equity globally. Through rigorous research, we offer gender insights into work, politics, and conflict that have the potential to reduce or eliminate barriers so all people can fulfill their life aspirations unconstrained by gender bias.
Spotlight
New Faculty Research on Self-Ratings and Bias in Performance Reviews
Performance reviews are supposed to reward merit. In practice, they're often subjective and can be swayed by an employee’s demographic characteristics and by design choices in the review process. New research by WAPPP co-director Iris Bohnet finds that, compared to other demographic groups, women of color–who tend to give themselves the lowest self-ratings–receive higher performance ratings when their self-evaluations are not shared with their managers.
Research & Programs
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF LAND AND PEOPLE
The Women and Public Policy Program and the Harvard Kennedy School are located on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary unceded homeland of the Massachusett people, the surviving descendants of the first people of Massachusetts and of the Neponset band of the Massachusett. We honor this tradition and work toward a gender equity agenda that addresses the needs of all women, including Indigenous women and Indigenous communities. For more information, please visit our GAP Land Acknowledgement resource page.