Male Leaders’ Role in Promoting Gender Inclusivity

SIOP Administrative Office

SIOP Participates in Coalition for National Science Funding Capitol Hill Exhibition

On May 16, SIOP member Katina Sawyer, Assistant Professor at Villanova University’s Department of Psychology, represented SIOP at the 23rd annual Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) Capitol Hill Exhibition in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition is an opportunity for CNSF members to display and discuss National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research directly with members of Congress, federal agency officials, and other policymakers and allows the research community to highlight the importance of continued investment in NSF and basic research.

This year’s title was “Investments in Scientific and Educational Research: Fueling American Innovation.” SIOP’s booth at the Exhibition featured ongoing research conducted by Sawyer, examining the role that male corporate leaders can have in promoting gender inclusivity at the organizational level, subsequently improving business performance.

"The attendees were very interested in hearing about ways that males can play a major role in gender equality at work and thinking about how to use our data to inform national decisions about how to approach gender inequity more broadly,” she ex-plained. "Gender equality is a very important topic right now—understanding how local programs might have national impact on gender equity or how national policies and procedures might affect gender equity overall, by focusing on males' role in the equation, allows us to find unique solutions to the gender chal-lenges we continue to face today".

The booth was very popular with attendees, and Sawyer was on hand to answer questions and discuss the importance of federal investments in I-O-driven social and behavioral science research.

"I really enjoyed attending the event because it was a great op-portunity for me to see how our research in I-O psychology can impact national policy,” Sawyer said. “We are so often siloed from the possible real-world implications of our work and it was exciting to engage with change-makers who are really able to leverage our findings in an impactful way."

CNSF is an alliance of over 140 professional organizations, universities and businesses united by a concern for the future vitality of the national science, mathematics, and engineering enterprise. CNSF supports the goal of increasing the national investment in the National Science Foundation's research and education programs. These programs increase and develop the knowledge base needed for pushing the frontiers of science, mathematics and engineering disciplines; contribute to the development of the future science and technology workforce; underpin new fields of inquiry; and promote interdisciplinary research and education -- all of which facilitate technological innovation.

The booth attracted a number of visitors from federal agencies and congressional offices. Visitors to the SIOP booth from NSF included Director France Córdova, along with Dr. Fay Lomax Cook, Assistant Director for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE), who oversees the agency’s social science research portfolio and sponsors many projects that support SIOP researchers and practitioners; Dr. Suzi Iacono, Head of the Office of Integrative Activities, as well as various other program officials from directorates throughout the agency.

The NSF representatives were excited to hear Dr. Sawyer explain her findings and eager to direct her to additional opportunities at NSF that support projects focused on broadening participation and representation in STEM. In addition, Dr. Sawyer’s research topic provoked interest and engaging conversations with a wide array of congressional staff, including personnel from the offices of Reps. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM-3), Ed Perlmutter (D-CO-7), Derek Kilmer (D-WA-6), Denny Heck (D-WA-10), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-1), and several others. Many of the staff members were interested in learning more about how I-O psychology could be applied to a pressing workforce concern, several of whom took copies of Dr. Sawyer’s presentation and exchanged contact information for future engagement.

SIOP joined CNSF in the fall of 2014 and participated in the past two Exhibitions. CNSF is an alliance of over 140 organizations that support the goal of increasing the national investment in NSF research and education programs. Participation in the CNSF Exhibition complements SIOP’s ongoing NSF outreach strategy, which has included submitting written testimony to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, advocating for NSF funding, as well as continuous efforts to build and maintain relationships with congressional and federal agency officials.

Through SIOP’s government relations activities, like the CNSF Exhibition, the Society is able to highlight the value of I-O research to federal agency program managers and policymakers and promote SIOP as a prominent and credible stakeholder in the science community’s government relations priorities. Learn more about SIOP’s activities on the Government Relations page.