Use Behavioral ‘Nudging’ to Tackle Gender, Health Challenges

At Harvard’s Kennedy School a decade ago, Bohnet noticed all 60 portraits were of men, so the school commissioned pictures of illustrious female alumni such as Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

This is important in changing post-university career decisions, because behavioral economics tells us a lack of women can become a “prescription, not a description” because of the way our minds work, Bohnet said.

Far from being a box-ticking exercise, encouraging diverse role models and having images of women and ethnic minority people in the workplace is demonstrably important because it “shapes what we believe is possible,” she said.