ABSTRACT

As modern societies become increasingly diverse, organizations have a vested interest in learning how to foster inclusive workplace cultures. The value of inclusion is particularly pronounced in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) where innovation is enhanced when organizations can maximize the intellectual contributions of diverse teams. Despite these strengths of diversity and inclusion, women remain underrepresented in many STEM fields and those who train in STEM often cite workplace culture as a reason they leave. Social psychology is uniquely positioned to understand the key components of workplace culture and to design and test interventions that might foster a more inclusive culture for women in STEM. In this chapter, we consider three-interrelated levels of workplace culture: the institutional, individual, and interpersonal. We review research that examines subtle cues to exclusion that women in STEM experience at each of these levels. We also explore evidence that interventions might successfully target one or more levels to cultivate a more inclusive culture for women and other devalued groups.