History of WAGES

The idea for WAGES grew out of a panicked need to come up with a presentation for a high-powered group of Penn State alumnae in New York City in 1996. I was both excited by the invitation to speak and totally stumped about what to say.

When I settled down to prepare the talk, I realized that, in addition to my research on gender and emotion, there was a growing body of research on gender-relevant workplace issues. Basing my talk on the idea of “Her Day at the Office Versus His Day at the Office,” my talk to about 40 professionals was a high point of my career. The research I presented struck a nerve, speaking to the experience of everyone present. My presentation was not just a boring review of arcane research findings, but a validation of what everyone in that room had experienced in the workplace. It was electric!

I used the talk as a model for a classroom “game” in my psychology of gender course, but my research program had a different focus and I didn’t have the time or energy to take the game further. In addition, there are few funding sources for developing this type of behavioral intervention. Ten years after I had the original idea, the NSF’s ADVANCE program issued a call for proposals that was a good fit, and I received funding to get WAGES on good footing.

Since then, my collaborators and I have published a number of peer-reviewed papers and given many conference presentations. Versions of WAGES for other contexts are under development, including WAGES-Classroom, WAGES-Business, and an on-line multiplayer version.