Lecture to address girders under glass ceiling

The invisible, often unacknowledged – but very concrete — barrier that prevents women in business from going to the very top of their organizations continues to vex many workers. Virginia Sapiro, Sophonisba Breckinridge Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies, will present a provocative new theory about the situation at a lecture on Friday, Nov. 21.

After reviewing literature from political science and psychology, Sapiro has concluded that “gatekeepers” — those in a position to hire, promote and allocate resources — hold a critical key to women’s advancement, or lack thereof, to the top echelons of business and public life.

Gatekeepers must hold themselves and their institutions responsible for diversifying their leadership, she says. “Despite their best intentions, the groups in power tend to replicate themselves.”

Sapiro’s research interests include political psychology and behavior, U.S. politics, political history, feminist and democratic theory, design and philosophy of social science research, and the state of women’s studies and its contributions.

A current project is the history of political action in the United States. She is also working with colleagues Kenneth Goldstein and Kathy Cramer Walsh in a study of gender in campaign advertising.

No stranger to leadership roles herself, Sapiro is associate vice chancellor for teaching and learning, and she has won the university’s Hilldale Award in the Social Sciences. She also serves on the Clark University Board of Trustees. She was the founding president of the American Political Science Association Organized Section on Women’s and Politics Research. She has served on the editorial boards of such journals as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Political Psychology, Social Science History, and Women and Politics. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has won numerous awards for her books and papers.

Her lecture, “Through a Glass Ceiling Darkly: Developments in the Political Psychology of Gender Stratification,” one of the Women’s Studies Research Center Colloquia, will begin at noon in 105 Ingraham Hall. Information: 263-2053.