The impact of "Dude Walls" on diversity in academia

Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via Getty Images via NPR

A couple weeks ago, I attended a talk by Professor Neil Lewis, Jr. (Cornell) on his research assessing and combatting subtle factors that contribute to achievement gaps between people of different races, genders, or socioeconomic backgrounds. The results of one of his recent studies supports the claim that "dude walls" (the institutional gallery walls that exclusively feature portraits of caucasian men) do indeed have a negative impact on female academics' senses of belonging in academic institutions and result in women giving significantly shorter talks on average then male academics give in the same space. In academia, giving job talks is one of the most important steps of interviewing for faculty positions and these talks are often held in University auditoriums adorned with "dude walls". Lewis' findings highlight one of the many ways in which the design of a space can have a silent, yet significant impact on the people within.