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Elizabeth Walker is one of today's career women who has received increasing media attention over the last decade.

Argues that Joan Robinson′s interest in teaching and her students was inherently connected to her views on the nature, scope and methodology of economics. More specifically, like the classical economists, she defined economics broadly as the study of the causes of material wealth and growth rather than the more narrow science of allocation of scarce resources. Like J.S. Mill, A. Marshall and J.M. Keynes, she viewed economics as a moral science rather than excluding ethics and politics from economic considerations. Most ⊃4importantly, she believed in the central role of history and thus uncertainty in economic analysis. This emphasis on history in turn implied that she did not consider the tools of economic analysis to be universally applicable across time and space. It is argued here that these beliefs directly affected her views on teaching economics.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interview with Sylvia Anne Hewlett, founder and president of the Center for Work Life Policy and Director of the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

This briefing is prepared by an independent interviewer.

Sylvia is a member of the World Economic Forum Council on the Gender Gap. She is the author of nine books including When the Bough Breaks (winner of a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Prize), and, most recently, Off‐Ramps and On‐Ramps. This interview discusses her recent publication: Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business is Down and how to engage and retain talent in the workplace.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

This interview provides insights into the strategies that employers should adopt to retain and engage talent and how organizations can better communicate with their employees following the economic downturn.

During a typical diversity program, participants are encouraged to recognize, evaluate, and appreciate differences. The purpose of this paper is to explore the rationale for “Conversity^®”: an alternative approach to diversity training that is based on connections.

The paper is based on a review of the literature on “traditional” diversity training paradigms, the impact of diversity on the brain, and basic social psychology concepts such as categorization and social affiliation. The authors relate literature review findings to their experiences conducting “connections‐based” (“Conversity”) diversity training.

The human brain is already wired to perceive differences. Further, human beings tend to prefer others who share their group affiliations. Possible consequences of “typical” diversity training programs may include a “backlash” against diversity, an increase in participants' fears, and a reinforcement of inter‐group divisions.

This paper offers practitioners an alternative paradigm for diversity training design including alternative categorization (i.e. emphasis on non‐traditional diversity categories such as personality or team color) and an intentional search for connections between participants.

Historically, diversity training programs have focused on the value of differences rather than on the power of common ground.

Labeling women as risk‐averse limits the positive benefits both women and organizations can gain from their risk taking. The purpose of this paper is to explore women's risk taking and reasons for stereotype persistence in order to inform human resource practice and women's career development.

The paper draws on literature about gender and organizations to identify reasons for the persisting stereotype of women's risk aversion. Utilizing literature and concepts about risk appetite and decision making, the paper evaluates results of the Simmons Gender and Risk Survey database of 661 female managers.

The paper finds evidence of gender neutrality in risk propensity and decision making in specific managerial contexts other than portfolio allocation.

More in‐depth research is needed to explore the gender‐neutral motivators of risk decision making and to explore risk taking in a more diverse sample population.

The paper explores why women's risk taking remains invisible even as they take risks and offers suggestions on how women and organizations may benefit from their risk‐taking activities.

The paper synthesizes evidence on risk taking and gender, and the evidence of female risk taking is an important antidote to persisting stereotypes. The paper outlines reasons for this stereotype persistence and implications for human resource development.

Despite the increased gender parity in the workforce today, few women attain top management positions in America's largest corporations. Instead, an increasing number of women are achieving CEO status as entrepreneurs. In‐depth interviews with women who have lived in both worlds – that of the stable company and one launched and run on their own – give some insight as to the nature of the problems and perceptions faced by women as managers and entrepreneurs. Issues such as gender‐role bias and work/life balance are concerns for women with and without children. Gathering information from women who decided to form their own organizations after they had worked in a large organization, this paper examines some of the decision‐making factors and socio‐personal constraints that affect such entrepreneurship.