To slow down climate change, speed up gender equality?

Gender equity and environmental sustainability may seem like unrelated issues, but research shows that they are in fact closely intertwined. Women and other underserved groups are disproportionately impacted by the global climate crisis, but they are also uniquely positioned to lead the fight for sustainability. In this piece, we review the evidence and offer six strategies to help business and political leaders empower women and address environmental challenges through an intersectional approach to sustainability. Ultimately, we argue that to tackle climate change (as well as the myriad other sustainability challenges that face today’s organizations), leaders must acknowledge the complexity and interconnectedness of these issues — and work to develop integrated solutions that will improve them all. For more, see the article in Harvard Business Review.

Giving the greenlight to be in the limelight? Effects of CEO gender and narcissism on environmental sustainability

Integrating the gender socialization perspective with the extended agency model of narcissism, we investigate why some strategic leaders better address environmental sustainability. After developing and validating a new measure of leader narcissism, results from a multi-study, mixed-methods approach support our theorizing. Our discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these results for bridging the micro-macro divide to better understand the microfoundations of corporate sustainability performance, recruiting and promoting more sustainable leaders, and measuring CEO narcissism. This paper has been accepted for presentation at the Strategic Management Society 2022.

Critical events at critical times? A gendered identity approach on the path to (sustainable) leadership

What are critical events or shocks? How might they influence early career professionals' leadership pursuits? Do these processes differ for those who identify as men and women? What are their implications for sustainability? In this theoretical piece, Dr. Stephanie Rehbock, Ronit Kark, and I highlight how #criticalevents affect early career professionals and their #identitysalience at a critical time for gender equity and (social) sustainability more broadly, while also challenging research and practice to more carefully consider the accuracy of our science and the untapped potential of the nexus between #diversity, #leadership, and #sustainability. For more, see the article in Frontiers.

For more of my work on topics related to social sustainability, e.g., diversity & leadership and work-family, please see those respective pages.