Gender, power, leadership, and the workplace

Seminars: 2 sessions / week, 1 hour and 15 minutes / session

MIT students need permission of the instructor.

"Until women are as ambitious as men, they're not going to achieve as much as men."
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Executive and author of Lean In.

"Young men keep telling me they don't 'have it all' either. And they may have a point. But if you define 'having it all' as the opportunity to have a successful career and a family, I'd say this. When a man tells his coworkers he's going to have a child, no one asks him how he'll manage or if he'll be coming back to work."
Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO of the New America Foundation and author of Why Women Can't Have it All.

"Seek out and learn from people with a different perspective on history. To create our multicultural future, all people's voices and perspectives must be welcome."
Juana Bordas, author of Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age.

Students are expected to complete the weekly readings prior to class, to attend all classes and to participate in discussion. The course grades are based on:

See Assignments section for more information.

Bordas, Juana. Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age. Barrett-Koehler Publishers, 2012. ISBN: 9781609941178. [Preview with Google Books]

Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Knopf Doubleday Publishers, 2013. ISBN: 9780385349949. [Preview with Google Books]

Fried, Mindy. Taking Time: Parental Leave Policy and Corporate Culture. Temple University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9781566396462. [Preview with Google Books]

Neely, Barbara. Blanche on the Lam. Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN: 9780140174397.

Note: On the weeks where there is a lot of reading, students will divide the reading, selecting articles / chapters from among those that are assigned.

Don't show me this again

This is one of over 2,200 courses on OCW. Find materials for this course in the pages linked along the left.

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free & open publication of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.

No enrollment or registration. Freely browse and use OCW materials at your own pace. There's no signup, and no start or end dates.

Knowledge is your reward. Use OCW to guide your own life-long learning, or to teach others. We don't offer credit or certification for using OCW.

Made for sharing. Download files for later. Send to friends and colleagues. Modify, remix, and reuse (just remember to cite OCW as the source.)

Learn more at Get Started with MIT OpenCourseWare