Shelley Correll

Shelley Correll is Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. Before joining the Stanford faculty, she taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University. She received her B.S. from Texas A&M and her Ph.D. from Stanford. Her research is in the area of gender inequality, examining how cultural beliefs about gender influence the educational and career paths of men and women. A recent set of papers explores how gender beliefs associated with mathematics differentially impact the extent to which men and women see themselves as mathematically competent, which affects their persistence on paths leading to careers in science, math, and engineering. Her most recent project, on the “motherhood penalty,” considers how stereotypic beliefs associated with motherhood influence the workplace evaluations and pay and hiring decisions of women when they give evidence of being a mother. This research has been featured in several media outlets including The New York Times, CNN, ABC World News Tonight, The Nation, Ms. Magazine, and The Boston Globe.

Professor Correll is also actively involved in developing applications of her research to real world problems. She consults on reducing stereotypic biases in academic hiring, speaks to professional groups in computer science and engineering, and works with attorneys as they incorporate social science evidence into cases involving workplace discrimination against those with family responsibilities.