GV professor speaks at Women’s Leadership Luncheon

GVL/Kevin Sielaff
Professor Sonia Dalmia

GVL/Kevin Sielaff Professor Sonia Dalmia

Alyssa Rettelle

The Women’s Leadership Luncheon, “Choices and Economic Outcomes: Does Gender Matter,” is being held Wednesday, Oct. 29 at the City Flats Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids.

The event is sponsored by the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants, the Association for Accounting Administration, the Michigan Women’s Tax Association and Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women.

During the luncheon, Sonia Dalmia, a Grand Valley State University professor of economics will be giving a lecture on gender and whether it truly matters in business decisions.

“My lecture will provide and in-depth analysis of the wage gap and how it is, to a large extent, influenced by the choices men and women make,” Dalmia said. “In doing so, it will touch upon the fact that gender differences lead to different economic outcomes primarily because men and women face different constraints.

“In short, gender differences in constraints lead to different choices, which in turn leads to different outcomes.”

Dalmia has been teaching a course on economics of gender for the past 13 years at GVSU. She was nominated for the Outstanding Teacher Award in 2006 and 2011, Phenomenal Woman of the Year in 2005 and Professor of the Year in 2003.

Dalmia was also nominated for GVSU’s Outstanding Community Service Award in 2009, and is the 2005 recipient of the Barbara Jordan Award from the GVSU Women and Gender Studies Program.

“The messages I hope to get across are the following,” Dalmia said. “Awareness-knowing that there are issues, differences and inequalities between women and men. Sensitivity-acknowledging differences and inequalities between women and men as requiring attention. Lastly, empowerment-the ability of women to make informed choices and decisions is absolutely fundamental to their empowerment and equality.”

Registration and the luncheon begin at 11:30 a.m. The keynote presentation will begin at noon and end 2:15 p.m. Participants will receive CPE credit and can register online at micpa.org/WIBGR or call 1 (855) 594-4273.

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