The equality toolbox

She is convinced that gender equality in the workplace is possible. In a business world where the position of women is changing slowly, Iris Bohnet wanted to put her discipline to good use. A blend of behavioural economics and psychology to find tools for advancing equality in the workplace. And not just for women. "There are many barriers that contribute to the gender gap, and all this is well documented. Women are more present in lower-paid areas, in more junior roles, and this proportion also needs to be rebalanced in what I call HEAL: health, education, administration and literacy, for example as compared to STEM professions."

The Harvard professor, who is Swiss but has lived in the United States for 25 years, was at the University of Luxembourg in early October to give a lecture on her research findings. Iris Bohnet is regularly hired as a consultant by various governments and major organisations to develop toolkits for sharing power and key positions more effectively. She is the author of two books, What works, gender equality by design and a second to be published in January, Make work fair. Although she has been interested in this subject for a number of years, it was somewhat by chance that she came to use her discipline to promote equality at work: "I didn't study gender, but I have been a feminist at heart all my life. I was aware that the decision-making process was generally full of bias. Then the Dean asked me to join a research centre focusing on gender, as director. First, I had to juggle my responsibilities as a professor of behavioural economics, but I eventually realised that I could combine the two very well."