Teaching a Class on Gender Issues in Introductory OB Courses: Exercises and Theory

Surveys such as that done by J. B. Rosener and C. L. Pearce have found that only half of business schools have courses that touch in some way on the topic of gender differences, partly due to the lack of resource material in the area. This article presents a single, integrated class module for introducing first-year undergraduate organizational behavior students to gender issues. The module relies on running two experiential exercises, which are then debriefed using cultural theories of gender differences. To achieve both adequate depth and breadth the focus is limited to two important gender issues: gender role expectations and gender stereotyping.