About CGO
Our Approach
Rather than view gender as a problem that individual women face at work, we analyze how gender is embedded in an organization's work practices and culture (for a summary of this approach see CGO Insights No. 1, "Making Change: A Framework for Promoting Gender Equity in Organizations"). Analyzing an organization through a gender lens creates opportunities to identify systems, practices, and norms that make it difficult for different groups of women (and often men) to be optimally effective. Our work with many organizations shows that performance is enhanced by gender equitable workplaces that enable both women and men to be productive contributors. This systemic linking of equity and effectiveness is what we call the dual agenda.
In contrast to other approaches, where gender, work and personal life issues, and diversity are handled through human resource policies and procedures, we focus our research and involvement at the level of work practice and deep cultural assumptions about work and how it gets accomplished. To achieve gender equity within an organization, it is critical to build internal constituencies among different groups that can sustain this unique form of change. Our thinking and practice on gender equity is organized around these themes: Leadership, Gender Equity & Change, and Working with Differences: Diversity.
How We Work
Focusing at the intersection of scholarship and practice, CGO does work in four principal ways:
We conduct research to deepen understanding of the way organizations are gendered and the impact of gender and identity on organizational performance.
We engage in consultations and action learning projects with organizations to translate CGO concepts into practical actions.
We convene public events, seminars, and workshops to highlight new research and practice on gender and diversity in organizations and to help link professionals—both scholars and practitioners—in the field. In addition, through the CGO Speakers Bureau, our affiliates speak to external audiences about our work.
We synthesize and disseminate gender information to organizations through the CGO website and by producing publications: Working Papers on current research; CGO Insights, practical briefing notes on innovative research and practice; and CGO Commentaries, which highlight current and emerging topics in the area of gender equity and organizational change.
Contenido en español:
Haga click aquí para aprender más sobre el trabajo de CGO.