As part of its Seed Grant Program, the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Institute for Diversity Science (IDS) awarded more than $138,000 in competitive funding to three research projects led by Wisconsin School of Business students and faculty.
“The Seed Grant Program is one of the key mechanisms through which the IDS supports the great diversity science work done here on campus and helps UW–Madison establish itself as a leader in this field,” says Markus Brauer, executive director of IDS.
“The Seed Grant Program is one of the key mechanisms through which the IDS supports the great diversity science work done here on campus and helps UW–Madison establish itself as a leader in this field.”
Markus Brauer
Chia-Jung Tsay, associate professor of management and human resources, and Minah Park, a doctoral student studying management and human resources, received $52,500 for their research proposal, “The Impact of Gender on Entrepreneurial Idea Generation and Selection.” The project aims to uncover how internal biases among women may contribute to the persistent gender gap in entrepreneurship.
Their research reveals when women evaluate their own business ideas, they exhibit lower self-assessments of their ideas, particularly on originality, compared to men. However, the quantity and quality of ideas are not significantly different between those generated by women versus those generated by men.
“Our study shows that great business ideas developed by women may have been overlooked during the evaluation stage due to an unintended and non-conscious self-discounting effect, leading to the rejection of ideas without further investment,” Park says.
A project led by Stav Atir, an assistant professor of management and human resources, and her co-investigator Hannah Birnbaum, an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was awarded $59,821. Their proposal, titled “The Privilege of Informality: Gender Differences in Preference for Formal Professional Titles,” examines how professional titles can influence perceptions of status and how women might be leveraging professional titles as a strategy to combat perceived lower respect in professional settings.
“Currently, many professions—especially high-status, high-compensation positions— severely underrepresent women and people of color,” Atir says. “We need evidence-based approaches to enhancing DEI in organizations and in society more broadly. As a starting point, it’s important to shine a scientific light on the often-invisible barriers that perpetuate inequality, and to understand how existing inequalities shape the experiences of members of marginalized groups within organizations.”
Jirs Meuris, assistant professor of management and human resources, and Alexis Avery, a doctoral student studying management and human resources, were awarded $26,500 for their project, “A Legacy of Task Segregation: Skin Tone and Exposure to Hazardous Work Tasks.” Previous studies have highlighted widespread inequality stemming from skin-tone differences, largely due to more frequent discrimination. This project raises an additional explanation: deep-rooted beliefs of task segregation which lead to the perception that individuals with darker skin are better suited for dirty or hazardous work.
“This project explores how skin tone impacts people’s work experiences,” Avery says. Although colorism disparities in health and well-being are often attributed to more frequent discrimination, our research aims to address colorism disparities in the workplace and inform policies that reduce the skin tone wage gap, especially in labor-intensive jobs like packaging, delivery work, and warehouse operations.”
Established in 2022, IDS serves as a collaborative, intellectual hub for scholars across UW–Madison’s schools and colleges. Its mission is to advance knowledge on diversity, equity, and inclusion and to apply this knowledge to combat discrimination and systemic and institutional barriers.