Title: Evaluating the impact of gender sensitivity training on public officers' attitudes - an empirical study

Authors: Sangeeta Goel

Addresses: Department of Public Policy and Governance, Management Development Institute, Mehrauli Road, Sukhrali, Gurgaon, Haryana, 122007, India

Abstract: As more and more organisations have come to consider the short-term training a 'quick fix' for long persisting organisational problems like gender-based bias, it will be interesting to see if the resources invested in such 'quick fix' training yields desired results. In order to determine if such results were possible, a study was conducted, using participants with N = 220 in a gender sensitivity training (GST) program. The initial survey was a pre-test, administered before training and the second survey was administered after a ten-day GST module. The two datasets (pre and post GST) were collected and compared using bivariate statistical analysis. These results demonstrate that a gender sensitisation program of short duration could be of limited help in addressing such problems being embedded in personality and takes time to change. The paper raises a topical question if the resources engaged in these programs are well spent.

Keywords: human resources; gender sensitivity training; GST; public officers; public organisations; sexism; South Asia; India; empirical research; gender diversity; attitudes; gender bias; resource allocation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2017.081973

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2017 Vol.14 No.2, pp.198 - 213

Received: 05 Dec 2015
Accepted: 22 Feb 2016
Published online: 31 Jan 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article