Career & Success

12 Stories About Gender, Power, and Progress for Women’s History Month

Some of our favorite articles about breakthroughs, biases, and bosses.

March 24, 2022

| by Justine Sombilon
Colorful and textural illustration of female presenting individuals with different hairstyles overlaid across the image. | Credit: iStock/Ada daSilva.

Stanford GSB researchers’ work on gender has covered everything from STEM to stones. | iStock/Ada daSilva

For Women’s History Month, we’ve rounded up a dozen timely and insightful Stanford Business articles about women’s experiences in the workplace, the classroom, and the world. The list includes a profile of some of the women who helped break gender barriers at Stanford Graduate School of Business, an interview with iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg, and faculty research about the intersection of gender, power, and progress.

Women are paid less than men for entry-level positions in engineering and tech. Research by Professor Adina Sterling finds it has nothing to do with their skill levels but rather a disparity in self-confidence.

Five women who enrolled at Stanford GSB at the height of the women’s movement remember their time on campus as an inflection point for themselves and the school. And don’t miss this video in which three of the women recall how they documented their experience in a presentation called “What’s a Nice Girl Doing in a Place Like This?”

Women working in high tech have described their experiences as a “death by a thousand cuts.” A study details how the inhospitable environment is made worse by micro-aggressions and a lack of acknowledgment that there’s a problem in the first place.

The creator of the quintessential wrap dress talks about losing everything and building herself back up. “Thanks to this dress,” von Furstenberg says, “I became more confident and I shared that confidence with other women.”

Professors Sarah Soule and Shelley Correll’s research suggests that customers are less inclined to buy traditionally “male” products if they think they’ve been made by women. “There’s an assumption that your woman-made craft beer, screwdriver, or roof rack just won’t be as good,” Soule says.

A study pinpoints how and when managers’ beliefs about gender creep into their evaluations of employees, particularly in evaluations surrounding personality, future potential, and the idea of exceptionalism.

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