Annual Conference :: 2002 Speakers & Guests

Keynote Speaker – 11:00-12:00, Thursday, May 9, 2002
Dr. Virginia Valian

Dr. Virginia Valian is a Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Hunter College-CUNY; author of "Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women," (MIT Press, 1998); and the Hunter College ADVANCE Program Principal Investigator.

Her book addresses why so few women occupy positions of power and prestige, using concepts and data from psychology, sociology, economics, and biology to explain the disparity in the professional advancement of men and women.

The claim is that men and women alike have implicit hypotheses about gender differences - gender schemas - that create small sex differences in characteristics, behaviors, perceptions, and evaluations of men and women. Those small imbalances accumulate to advantage men and disadvantage women. The most important consequence of gender schemas for professional life is that men tend to be overrated and women underrated.

Although most men and women in the professions sincerely hold egalitarian beliefs, those beliefs alone cannot guarantee impartial evaluation and treatment of others. Only by understanding how our perceptions are skewed by gender schemas can we begin to perceive ourselves and others accurately. The goal in Why So Slow? is to make the invisible factors that retard women's progress visible so that fair treatment of men and women will be possible. The book makes its case with experimental and observational data from laboratory and field studies of children and adults, and with statistical documentation on men and women in the professions. The many anecdotal examples throughout provide a lively counterpoint.

Dr. Valian’s current research investigates two-year-olds' knowledge and use of language, the role of input in syntax acquisition, gender differences in mathematics problem-solving, theoretical models of language development, and the relation between competence and performance in language. She is a frequent speaker, consultant and workshop leader on gender differences and the advancement of women.

For more information, please see Dr. Valian’s website: http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/psych/faculty/valian/valian.htm.