Beth A. Brooke-Marciniak
What Works delivers! I have long been inspired by Iris Bohnet’s impressive research on gender bias. In this book, she has distilled years of work into practical approaches that any organization—business, education or government—can adapt to start changing the environments in which we all live, learn, and work. This is a must-read for everyone who actually wants to do something to address the stubborn and costly issue of gender inequality.
Max Bazerman
If you really want equality, here is a guide to action. No more excuses; we know how to design. Bohnet is brilliant and practical, and she documents what works. Everyone who read Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge and cares about equality will want to consume this masterpiece.
Nic Logan-Murray
What Works serves both as a clear indication of where we currently stand and a guide as to how, institution by institution, we can nudge ourselves towards greater gender equality.
Financial Times - Andrew Hill
This is a persuasive manual for anyone seeking to eliminate unconscious biases—in recruitment and management—that perpetuate imbalances between men and women. Bohnet offers invaluable, research-based guidance about how to design and run organizations that are not only fairer, but better.
Business Record - Lori Chesser
Despite so many improvements, gender equality in the workplace (let alone in other parts of life) often seems like a chimera: something that exists only in imagination and is not possible in reality…Bohnet presents the science; we no longer have to think that it is all in our imagination. Read the book. Act on it. Make gender equality a reality.
Herminia Ibarra
True to its title, Iris Bohnet’s timely book marshals evidence from proven research to designing interventions that actually work. A must-read for anyone trying to move the needle on gender diversity.
Management Today - Julie Chappell
This book is easy to follow with helpful summaries and an inspiring finish. I would highly recommend that anyone who manages people gives it a go. It is stuffed with experiments and data drawn from all over the world…This is a must-have guide for anyone in charge of a diversity budget.
Laszlo Bock
In a field overflowing with opinions and ‘gut feelings,’ What Works is a shining ray of truth and insight. Bohnet lays out the science behind what really drives—and prevents—gender inequality, and translates it into clear, easy-to-implement steps for achieving equality. A much needed book with precise, effective prescriptions for any environment.
David Halpern
Bohnet is the world’s leading expert at the intersection of behavioral science and gender equality. Her work moves effortlessly between laboratory studies and real world examples, and spells out the practical implications. Achieve equity; enhance profit; and beat your rivals—and be gripped along the way.
Forbes
Have you checked your boardroom and hallways lately? What do you see on the walls? Among the many interventions Iris Bohnet…proposes in order to achieve gender equality, one that you could implement pretty quickly is reviewing the photos hanging around your company. If after a quick inspection, you discover the portraits are mostly of past male CEOs, rethink your decor. It’s a simple idea that can work wonders.
Deborah Borda
What Works is a call to action. It demonstrates with real-life examples, such as the introduction of blind auditions into the world of symphony orchestras, how the seemingly intractable problem of gender inequality can be not only addressed but solved. This book is a gift.
Financial Times - Sarah Gordon
Right up to board level, companies should find in What Works not only food for thought [about gender bias], but a guide for effective practical action as well.
Carol Schwartz
Iris Bohnet has not only managed to successfully explain how gender bias exists in all of us, she then goes on to provide straightforward, practical suggestions to overcome the suboptimal status quo. A groundbreaking book with solutions that every institution and corporation should implement in their quest for high performance.
Adam Grant
Compelling, lucid, and filled with actionable insights, What Works draws from a deep well of research to explain how we can end gender inequality.
Times Higher Education - Sarah Green
If you think you have no gender bias, you should read this book. It will surprise you. Bohnet uses hard evidence to show that complacency about gender equality is dangerous because bias in the workplace remains widespread, entrenched and destructive. Sometimes depressing, always compelling, this work makes it clear how much work has yet to be done.
HR Magazine
This in-depth exploration of gender bias offers practical examples of what you can do to ensure your business hires and retains the best talent.
Linda Babcock
A game changer. In this brilliant and practical book, Bohnet explains how behavioral insights can collapse gender inequality in our lifetime. It’s terrific.
Finance and Development - Karen Ongley
Bohnet elegantly and expansively demonstrates how [subconscious] biases can be obstacles to gender equality. What sets her approach apart in an increasingly crowded field of gender-equality literature is her use of behavioral design to offer practical—and often intuitive—solutions…She leads through demonstration and design, leaving readers better equipped to find solutions that work, so we can each contribute to making a difference.
Severin Schwan
What Works is one of those rare books that will cause me to act differently. Confronting me with common situations and arming me with practical recommendations, Iris Bohnet challenged my ingrained beliefs and behavior. Brava!
Mirjam Staub-Bisang
Iris Bohnet’s groundbreaking work will revolutionize the way governments and corporations approach gender equality in the workplace. Extraordinary.
Urs Rohner
If you want to solve gender inequality, read What Works. Then follow the compelling, insightful suggestions Iris Bohnet provides. This is a book you will return to again and again, for this is a book that changes everything.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
What Works is a brilliant breakthrough guide to closing the gender gap. Iris Bohnet connects research-based insights from many nations that are tackling this vital issue to show how biased minds can be nudged to make unbiased choices, and how small changes can have big impact. Her book provides essential leadership lessons for designing a more equitable and more productive world.
Governance Now - Yoshika Sangal
What Works is an out-of-the-box read. Full of facts, data and real-life evidence, it is a must read for those who want doable actions to ensure gender equality.
Wall Street Journal - Carol Tavris
Impressive…What Works is stuffed with good ideas...The glory of this book is that Bohnet not only offers dozens of practical examples of how behavioral findings can be put to use but also demonstrates that moving toward equity need not be a zero-sum game in which as women gain, men lose…She makes trying out the new steps seem like an exhilarating project rather than an impossible one.
Cass Sunstein
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.
Management Today - Rebecca Smith
A handy manual about promoting gender in the workplace, which is up front about what works, and what doesn’t.
Times Higher Education - Victoria Bateman
To blindly assume that sexism is a thing of the past is to fly in the face of the wealth of modern-day experimental evidence presented in this fascinating book…From the boardroom to the classroom, this book outlines a set of tools that we need to design organizations in a way that sets us free from unconscious gender bias…Bohnet’s book is a call to action—and it is one that organizations cannot afford to ignore.
PopMatters - Hans Rollmann
What Works is a fascinating and absorbing book, presenting dozens of research projects, case studies, and theories that address a wide range of gender equality problems…It offers thought-provoking (and empirically-researched) challenges to many of the mainstream notions and ideas that turn out to be rooted in bias, stereotypes, and other ‘mind bugs that affect our judgment.’
Stanford Social Innovation Review - Kavita Nandini Ramdas
[Bohnet’s] straightforward tools for designing inclusive and diverse workplaces and institutions are a boon to anyone who hopes to study, work, and live in an atmosphere of openness and civility.
New Yorker - Lauren Collins
Even when women do make it to the bargaining table, they often fare poorly…Bohnet examines data from a group of Swedish job seekers, among whom women ended up with lower salaries than their equally qualified male peers…When women act more like men, she suggests, they are often punished for it. Lean in, and you might get pushed even further back. Bohnet recommends that organizations explicitly invite women to negotiate, and train managers to counteract their biases.
Frédéric Rozé
Drawing on a deep well of research and expertise, Iris Bohnet’s new book gives companies a practical and invaluable toolkit for designing a gender-equal culture. Her business case for action is so compelling that it should be required reading for every corporate leader.
Tina Brown
Fresh, scholarly, and illuminating. Iris Bohnet brings a new lens to gender discussion that will spark much-needed debate.
New Statesman - Helen Lewis
Provides a useful introduction to all the available evidence showing there is a business, as well as moral, case for diversity. What Works speaks to CEOs in a language they will understand, taking the emotion out of the argument and making a pragmatic case for reshaping workplace norms to make women feel less alienated.
The Guardian
A refreshingly clear, meticulously researched manual for eliminating gender inequality in the workplace.
Prospect
Thoroughly evidence-based and intensely practical. This book will provide employers with ways to think about what changes they can and should be making to address unintentional discrimination in the workplace, and how such changes would benefit everyone.
Laura D. Tyson
Professor Bohnet has written a pathbreaking book documenting how unconscious biases and stereotypes are pervasive barriers to gender equality. The book combines brilliant insights from behavioral research with practical recommendations about how to design policies and organizations to counter these biases and accelerate progress toward gender parity. The moral case for gender parity is indisputable; the business case is compelling. Now Professor Bohnet has written a how-to manual, based on rigorous research, about how to achieve this goal.
Prospect - Jessica Abrahams
Thoroughly evidence-based and intensely practical. This book will provide employers with ways to think about what changes they can and should be making to address unintentional discrimination in the workplace, and how such changes would benefit everyone.
Frédéric Rozé
Drawing on a deep well of research and expertise, Iris Bohnet’s new book gives companies a practical and invaluable toolkit for designing a gender-equal culture. Her business case for action is so compelling that it should be required reading for every corporate leader.
Kirkus Reviews
2015-12-21
How to recognize and overcome bias. Professor and director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Bohnet, a behavioral economist, draws on extensive research to argue that gender equality can be accomplished in schools, businesses, and politics. Her goal, she writes, is to present a range of designs "that make it easier for our biased minds to get things right." The book, which reads like a series of TED talks, is strongest in revealing unconscious forces that shape decision-making: the halo effect, for example, "when an initial positive impression of a person impacts how favorably the person is perceived"; the influence of gendered language in job ads, newsletters, and Web pages; and the power of believing that gender equality is a prevalent norm. "People are generally more likely to adopt a behavior if they know that most others are already doing it," she writes. Bohnet has found that diversity training in businesses "has no relationship with the diversity of the workforce" but instead may promote moral licensing, "where people respond to having done something good by doing more of something bad." More effective approaches teach people to "consider-the-opposite" (imagining oneself in another's shoes) and imagine a "crowd-within" (asking themselves how a crowd would assess evidence). Bohnet's designs for change underscore the need for transparency in interviewing, hiring, promotion, school policies, and government. She advises publicizing role models through such strategies as displaying portraits of women and minorities in public settings and by increasing "the fraction of counterstereotypical people in positions of leadership, through quotas or other means." She sums up her advice in the acronym DESIGN: Data, Experiment, Signpost. "Do not focus on changing minds," she cautions, but instead collect data, experiment with solutions, and create signposts that "nudge behavior toward more equality." An optimistic solution to a complex problem.