Profile
Lilia Cortina
Birth:
1972
Training Location(s):
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (1999)
MA, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (1996)
BA, Pomona College (1993)
Primary Affiliation(s):
University of Michigan (2000-present)
Psychology’s Feminist Voices Oral History Interview:
Other Media:
Faculty Pages
University of Michigan Women's and Gender Studies Profile
Gender and Respect in Organizations (GRO) Lab
Videos
Sexual Harassment in Academia, Business/Industry, and Healthcare Professions Workshop
Career Focus:
Sexual harassment and assault; workplace incivility; gender in organizations; violence against women.
Biography
Growing up in a politically liberal household, Lilia Margaret Cortina was exposed to a feminist ethos early on. This environment primed her passion for bringing feminism into her career as a psychologist. Her mother was involved in the women’s movement and, without an explicit label, introduced her daughter to many feminist values which influenced Cortina’s outlook and orientation. Although she had strong beliefs about sexism and equity, it wasn’t until her undergraduate studies at Pomona College that she discovered the feminist theory and research that supported her personal beliefs.
While pursuing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Cortina became heavily involved in the research laboratory of Dr. Louise Fitzgerald. Here, her research focused on sexual harassment, gender fairness, and gender bias in federal courts. Although Cortina’s interest in feminist psychology had been piqued in her undergraduate years during a Psychology of Women course, it crystallized under the supervision of Fitzgerald, who was a powerful feminist role model. Cortina recalls that feminism was woven into the fabric of the lab and she learned to infuse her own work with a similar perspective. Occasionally, Cortina would present at the Association for Women in Psychology conference, and she published her first article in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly. She was also trained in feminist psychotherapy. In her dissertation, she studied Latinas' experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace after noticing their lack of representation in the existing literature. She investigated sexual harassment defined by Latinas via surveys, including both nonverbal behaviour (ex: being leered at) and verbal behavior (ex: use of inappropriate terms of address).
Her graduate school experience solidified Cortina's passion for research, steering her away from clinical work toward a career in academia. She began a position at the University of Michigan where she is now a professor of social and feminist psychology, with a cross appointment in women’s studies. One of the undergraduate courses she teaches is Psychology of Women, where she teaches her students about gender, sexuality, and social inequality. She notes that by the end of each course, the number of students who openly identify as feminist tends to double. She also strongly encourages her students to channel their anger regarding social injustices into action.
Cortina now focuses on low-level, everyday workplace incivility, a topic that has garnered much attention within the industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology community. She advocates for the consideration of feminist theory within the I/O psychology field, and although limited, she notes that there has been a recent increase in openness to gender and diversity issues in I/O psychology.
During her work on hostile work environments, Cortina has investigated gender harassment — a subset of sexual harassment that includes common, everyday sexism such as insults, comments, jokes, and graffiti based on or in reference to a person’s gender. Cortina explains that, despite its significant impact on mental health, gender harassment is often overlooked.
Cortina recalls that she was not immune to gender harassment at the start of her career. She remembers a male colleague attempting to bully her into silence when they disagreed during meetings:
“Probably the most memorable experience was when I thought, ‘Oh, this is what harassment feels like” when it wasn’t sexualized in any way. It was more-so a colleague trying to silence me and when it was clear that we had different perspectives on a particular issue, and he did whatever he could to discredit my opinions. My response to that was to dig in my heels and to make it really clear — not to be obnoxious about making my views heard — but to make it really clear that I was going to share my opinions and speak up when challenged.”
Since 2015, Cortina has been an associate director for the ADVANCE Program at University of Michigan. Here, she applies psychological research to intervention programs designed to decrease bias and promote diversity and inclusivity in the faculty workplace via workshops, mentoring committees, and programming.
Nominated for the American Psychological Association’s prestigious Strickland-Daniel Mentoring Award, Cortina credits her own mentoring abilities to Louise Fitzgerald and other senior graduate students during her time in graduate school. She mentors both Ph.D. and undergraduate honours students, and hosts biweekly meetings to discuss research with her students and mentees.
Although Cortina advises budding feminist psychologists to pursue important research in sexism, sexual harassment and workplace incivility, she also advises caution when working in traditional environments surrounded by colleagues who do not hold similar feminist values. She explains that it is important to be aware of the repercussions of holding minority status in fields such as business, or even some psychology departments, where there is limited feminist presence or regard for gender, sexuality, and diversity. In other words, as important as it is to stand up for one's values, also ensure that there is enough structural support to weather the interpersonal conflict that may ensue.
By Lucy Xie (2020)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By Lilia Cortina
Cortina, L.M., Kabat-Farr, D., Nelson, K. & Magley, V.M. (2017). Researching rudeness: The past, present, and future of the science of incivility. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22, 299-313.
Roberts, T. A., Curtin, N., Duncan, L. E., & Cortina, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Feminist perspectives on building a better psychological science of gender. Springer International Publishing: Chicago.
Kabat-Farr, D. & Cortina. L.M. (2014). Sex-based harassment in employment: New insights into gender and context. Law & Human Behavior, 38, 58-72.
Leskinen, E. A., Cortina, L. M., & Kabat, D. B. (2011). Gender harassment: Broadening our understanding of sex-based harassment at work. Law and Human Behavior, 35(1), 25-39.
Cortina, L.M. (2008). Unseen injustice: Incivility as modern discrimination in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 33, 55-75.
Cortina, L. M., & Wasti, S. A. (2005). Profiles in coping: Responses to sexual harassment across persons, organizations, and cultures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(1), 182.
Lilia Cortina
Birth:
1972
Training Location(s):
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (1999)
MA, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (1996)
BA, Pomona College (1993)
Primary Affiliation(s):
University of Michigan (2000-present)
Psychology’s Feminist Voices Oral History Interview:
Other Media:
Faculty Pages
University of Michigan Women's and Gender Studies Profile
Gender and Respect in Organizations (GRO) Lab
Videos
Sexual Harassment in Academia, Business/Industry, and Healthcare Professions Workshop
Career Focus:
Sexual harassment and assault; workplace incivility; gender in organizations; violence against women.
Biography
Growing up in a politically liberal household, Lilia Margaret Cortina was exposed to a feminist ethos early on. This environment primed her passion for bringing feminism into her career as a psychologist. Her mother was involved in the women’s movement and, without an explicit label, introduced her daughter to many feminist values which influenced Cortina’s outlook and orientation. Although she had strong beliefs about sexism and equity, it wasn’t until her undergraduate studies at Pomona College that she discovered the feminist theory and research that supported her personal beliefs.
While pursuing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Cortina became heavily involved in the research laboratory of Dr. Louise Fitzgerald. Here, her research focused on sexual harassment, gender fairness, and gender bias in federal courts. Although Cortina’s interest in feminist psychology had been piqued in her undergraduate years during a Psychology of Women course, it crystallized under the supervision of Fitzgerald, who was a powerful feminist role model. Cortina recalls that feminism was woven into the fabric of the lab and she learned to infuse her own work with a similar perspective. Occasionally, Cortina would present at the Association for Women in Psychology conference, and she published her first article in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly. She was also trained in feminist psychotherapy. In her dissertation, she studied Latinas' experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace after noticing their lack of representation in the existing literature. She investigated sexual harassment defined by Latinas via surveys, including both nonverbal behaviour (ex: being leered at) and verbal behavior (ex: use of inappropriate terms of address).
Her graduate school experience solidified Cortina's passion for research, steering her away from clinical work toward a career in academia. She began a position at the University of Michigan where she is now a professor of social and feminist psychology, with a cross appointment in women’s studies. One of the undergraduate courses she teaches is Psychology of Women, where she teaches her students about gender, sexuality, and social inequality. She notes that by the end of each course, the number of students who openly identify as feminist tends to double. She also strongly encourages her students to channel their anger regarding social injustices into action.
Cortina now focuses on low-level, everyday workplace incivility, a topic that has garnered much attention within the industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology community. She advocates for the consideration of feminist theory within the I/O psychology field, and although limited, she notes that there has been a recent increase in openness to gender and diversity issues in I/O psychology.
During her work on hostile work environments, Cortina has investigated gender harassment — a subset of sexual harassment that includes common, everyday sexism such as insults, comments, jokes, and graffiti based on or in reference to a person’s gender. Cortina explains that, despite its significant impact on mental health, gender harassment is often overlooked.
Cortina recalls that she was not immune to gender harassment at the start of her career. She remembers a male colleague attempting to bully her into silence when they disagreed during meetings:
“Probably the most memorable experience was when I thought, ‘Oh, this is what harassment feels like” when it wasn’t sexualized in any way. It was more-so a colleague trying to silence me and when it was clear that we had different perspectives on a particular issue, and he did whatever he could to discredit my opinions. My response to that was to dig in my heels and to make it really clear — not to be obnoxious about making my views heard — but to make it really clear that I was going to share my opinions and speak up when challenged.”
Since 2015, Cortina has been an associate director for the ADVANCE Program at University of Michigan. Here, she applies psychological research to intervention programs designed to decrease bias and promote diversity and inclusivity in the faculty workplace via workshops, mentoring committees, and programming.
Nominated for the American Psychological Association’s prestigious Strickland-Daniel Mentoring Award, Cortina credits her own mentoring abilities to Louise Fitzgerald and other senior graduate students during her time in graduate school. She mentors both Ph.D. and undergraduate honours students, and hosts biweekly meetings to discuss research with her students and mentees.
Although Cortina advises budding feminist psychologists to pursue important research in sexism, sexual harassment and workplace incivility, she also advises caution when working in traditional environments surrounded by colleagues who do not hold similar feminist values. She explains that it is important to be aware of the repercussions of holding minority status in fields such as business, or even some psychology departments, where there is limited feminist presence or regard for gender, sexuality, and diversity. In other words, as important as it is to stand up for one's values, also ensure that there is enough structural support to weather the interpersonal conflict that may ensue.
By Lucy Xie (2020)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By Lilia Cortina
Cortina, L.M., Kabat-Farr, D., Nelson, K. & Magley, V.M. (2017). Researching rudeness: The past, present, and future of the science of incivility. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22, 299-313.
Roberts, T. A., Curtin, N., Duncan, L. E., & Cortina, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Feminist perspectives on building a better psychological science of gender. Springer International Publishing: Chicago.
Kabat-Farr, D. & Cortina. L.M. (2014). Sex-based harassment in employment: New insights into gender and context. Law & Human Behavior, 38, 58-72.
Leskinen, E. A., Cortina, L. M., & Kabat, D. B. (2011). Gender harassment: Broadening our understanding of sex-based harassment at work. Law and Human Behavior, 35(1), 25-39.
Cortina, L.M. (2008). Unseen injustice: Incivility as modern discrimination in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 33, 55-75.
Cortina, L. M., & Wasti, S. A. (2005). Profiles in coping: Responses to sexual harassment across persons, organizations, and cultures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(1), 182.