The Rotman Podcast celebrated International Women’s Day with Prof. Sarah Kaplan, professor of Strategic Management and Director of Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) at Rotman. In this episode, Sarah addresses long-standing gender biases, her views on meritocracy and the need to establish urgency pertaining to gender-based discrimination.

This Canadian Broadcasting Corporation International Women’s Day theme is #EachForEqual, and two CBC Employee Resource Groups, Women in Tech and Visible Women, have come together to organize, celebrate and advocate for and spread awareness about creating equality in the workspace for women working across industries. Sarah Kaplan gave the keynote and then participated in a panel discussion. The topic of her talk was “Making real progress on gender equality.”

In this interview for Research2Reality, “So what’s really interesting is a lot of people think that our challenge with gender equality just had to do with that we have biases in our brains, and so if we can only fix our brains, we would somehow fix the problem.” Unfortunately, the problems go beyond psychological barriers, extending into the institutions that influence how people behave. Real change takes more than flipping a switch in our minds because we also need to change the foundations of the society that perpetuates the divide.

Despite decades of effort, our path to gender equality has been littered with roadblocks. One of the most prominent is the notion that any deliberate effort to promote greater diversity will undermine our meritocratic system. This is the excuse given by boards of directors when they explain why they don’t have women on their boards. In this talk for U of T in Your Neighborhood, Kaplan draws on cutting-edge research to bring a fresh perspective to this conversation. Showing that these arguments are based on false premises, she explains how our systems of education, recruiting, and promotion are often unmeritocratic because, due to unconscious bias, the contributions of women and people of color are devalued. But, she argues, training in unconscious bias isn’t the solution. Indeed, it can often lead to backlash. Instead, she reveals what does work.

It's said that a rising tide lifts all boats. That's usually considered a good thing. But what if the economic growth that the expression refers to actually results in widespread flooding... To continue the metaphor... Acting as a driving force behind ecological destruction? In a conversation with host Steve Paikin of TVO’s The Agenda, we addressed: What are the consequences of endless economic expansion?

Today on the Front Burner radio show and podcast, host Jayme Poisson talks to business professor Sarah Kaplan about the decision by the world’s biggest money manager, BlackRock, to make climate change central to its investment decisions, and whether corporations can lead on climate change action.

Policies to bring more women into the formal workforce often do not consider the household work that women already do to support the survival of their families, making work-for-wages impossible or creating time famines for women who attempt to do both. Women’s ability to work formal jobs was a family project to reallocate labor. The focus on the individual in work–life balance research and policy-making inadequately represents a phenomenon that involves other household members, implicitly or explicitly. It also highlights the need to broaden our definition of “work” to include both the paid and unpaid labor that is vital to people’s survival.

At the beginning of 2019, a razor company released an that dominated social media and the news for over a week.  Since it aired, I’ve been thinking a lot about advertising’s place in the #MeToo era… and it’s role in promoting toxic masculinity over the years. But here’s the thing: It’s men and boys who Gillette’s ad needed to reach… but nearly all of its detractors were guys! So what are advertisers and brands missing here? And really, is it our job to figure it out? In this episode of The Coup with host Ron Tite, they explored in an interview with Sarah Kaplan how corporate — brands and their PR machines — continue to transform the way we see, think about, and perform masculinity.

Corporations are critical players in Canada's economy - they create the wealth, jobs, goods, and services we all need. And increasingly that's prompted people to see them as more than commercial enterprises, but as key social actors too. The Agenda welcomes Sarah Kaplan to discuss her new book, "The 360 degree Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation," about how businesses are confronting some of those new expectations.

In August 2019, some of America's top business people released a statement saying, among other things: "CEOs work to generate profits and return value to shareholders, but the best-run companies do more." It was part of a wider call for change in how companies do business. Joining Steve Paikin of TVO’s The Agenda in a discussion about success beyond profits is Phillip Haid, of the social impact marketing agency PUBLIC Inc.; Toby Heaps, of Corporate Knights Inc.; Tanya van Biesen, of the digital marketing agency Catalyst; and Sarah Kaplan, author of "The 360 degree Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation."

At the Government of Canada’s Women and the Workplace Symposium, Sarah Kaplan busts five myths regarding women in the workplace and outlines actions organizations and governments can take to achieve progress towards gender equality. The Symposium which brought together leaders and champions of workplace diversity from across Canada to share tools and best practices employers need to advance women in the workforce and participate in an ongoing dialogue.

Sarah Kaplan talks about why she founded the Institute for Gender and the Economy and why it is so important to use rigorous research to change the conversation on gender equality.