Studies on gender and leadership to date reveal that structural, psychological, and attitudinal barriers disadvantage women in the workplace. Women who work in outdoor recreation programs also face gender stereotypes related to the perceived appropriateness of the social role they play, and level of physical ability; stereotypes which cause employees and co-workers alike to prefer male leaders. One area of outdoor recreation that requires further investigation is live-in summer camps, because of the more nurturant requirements of leaders in these spaces. This paper documents which qualities residential summer camp staff value in leaders, and hypothesizes whether women who work in the more home-like setting of live-in camps face the same attitudinal and social barriers as women in other areas of outdoor recreation. Analysis yielded a distinct gender bias in favor of men, suggesting that even when a more nurturant environment is required, people still perceive men to be the most appropriate leaders. This pervasive gender bias confirms a patriarchal understanding of leadership and the legacy of historical gender roles even in the unexamined, and more feminized, environments of live-in summer camps. It also re-confirms that, despite popular rhetoric in the West about equality and opportunity, everyone is not allowed equal opportunity to lead.

In this presentation we argue that in many regulated industries such as banking, finance, and insurance, a post qualitative vs. quantitative world is not yet a reality. In such an environment, advanced analytics could be likened to being in its teenage years, while behavioral research is still in its infancy. Big data primarily drives our metrics, but in such a highly digitized and individualized culture, we know that ethnography is the missing piece of the puzzle. This means that as social scientists we must be the loudest (and sometimes lone) voice calling to leverage employees who are trained in these skill sets and incorporate these methods into our work. Slow and steady wins the race and our wins look different when compared with companies that already have been convinced of the value and don't have to do as much work to incorporate them into existing analysis. We have found that becoming EPIC members has been a turning point for our own growth mindset. Our industries are still primarily relationship‐based, and for those analysts new to regulated industries, EPIC is the ideal community to help propel the legitimization of a permanent place for qualitative methods in our data‐driven, highly regulated industry.