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The Fix: Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work
The Fix: Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work
The Fix: Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work
Ebook430 pages6 hours

The Fix: Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work

By Michelle P. King, Gillian Anderson and Jennifer Nadel

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In the vein of #Girlboss and Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, discover how to thrive at work from the head of the Global Innovation Coalition for Change at UN Women with this “passionate, practical roadmap for addressing inequality and finally making our workplaces work for women” (Arianna Huffington).

For years, we’ve been telling women that in order to succeed at work, they have to change themselves first—lean in, negotiate like a man, don’t act too nice or you’ll never get the corner office. But after sixteen years working with major Fortune 500 companies as a gender equality expert, Michelle King has realized one simple truth—the tired advice of fixing women doesn’t fix anything.

The truth is that workplaces are gendered; they were designed by men for men. Because of this, most organizations unconsciously carry the idea of an “ideal worker,” typically a straight, white man who doesn’t have to juggle work and family commitments. Based on King’s research and exclusive interviews with major companies and thought leaders, The Fix reveals why denying the fact that women are held back just because they are women—what she calls gender denial—is the biggest obstacle holding women back at work and outlines the hidden sexism and invisible barriers women encounter at work every day. Women who speak up are seen as pushy. Women who ask for a raise are seen as difficult. Women who spend hours networking don’t get the same career benefits as men do. Because women don’t look like the ideal worker and can’t behave like the ideal worker, they are passed over for promotions, paid less, and pushed out of the workforce, not because they aren’t good enough, but because they aren’t men.

In this fascinating and empowering book, King outlines the invisible barriers that hold women back at all stages of their careers, and provides readers with a clear set of takeaways to thrive despite the sexist workplace, as they fight for change from within. Gender equality is not about women, and it is not about men—it is about making workplaces work for everyone. Together, we can fix work, not women.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherAtria Books
Release dateMar 3, 2020
ISBN9781982110970
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Author

Michelle P. King

Michelle P. King is the Director of Inclusion at Netflix. A leading global expert in gender and organizations, she was most recently head of the UN Women Global Innovation Coalition for Change. King is an advisory board member for Girl Up, the United Nations Foundation’s adolescent girl campaign. King writes for Forbes, Thrive, and Harvard Business Review, and is also the host of the weekly podcast The Fix, which shares practical ways men and women can advance equality at work. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and two children. For more information, visit MichellePKing.com.

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    Book preview

    The Fix - Michelle P. King

    Cover: The Fix, by Michelle P. King

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    The Fix by Michelle P. King, Atria

    For any woman who feels like they are not good enough, I hope you read this book and realize just how truly exceptional you are.

    Foreword

    As women, the message we often receive is that we need to try harder if we want equality. We need to lean in further, do better, and juggle with greater dexterity. We need to change how we look and change how we feel. This can leave us with the inaccurate perception that it is us, not the workplace, that needs fixing.

    The truth is that the world of work wasn’t designed for women. It was shaped around a predominantly male workforce that historically (and often currently) wasn’t recognized as having caring or parenting responsibilities. As a result, it doesn’t meet the needs of us as women, nor ironically the needs of the men that so often still dominate it. As women, we want equality, but we want equality in a system that is designed to meet the needs of all of us as we really are—whatever our race and gender.

    In We: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere, we laid out a path for individual transformation that would enable us to come together to shape our world for the better. Individual transformation and systemic change are intimately linked. And, as Michelle King so powerfully lays out in the pages that follow, the world of work is ripe for some very profound changes.

    It is not enough to pay lip service to equality. Tokenism and bolt-ons to our existing systems won’t work.

    The solutions we seek must look beyond a point of gender parity to one where our society, economy, and workplace are designed to meet the needs of all of us as humans—real, rounded, flawed, complicated human beings. Not ones that need to pretend to be perfect or pretend not to need, fear, desire, hurt, and care. Ones that recognize that we are not human doings but human beings and that our current me-first culture has endangered the threads that bind our communities and nations together.

    Our binary system of first-past-the-post winners and losers serves none of us. Real, meaningful success isn’t about accumulation and reaching the finish line first. It’s about acknowledging that we are all connected and ensuring that we are all okay—wherever we are born, live, and work. It is time for a way of measuring our progress that isn’t based on our economic worth but on our collective well-being and our planet’s. Happiness can’t be bought, sold, or manufactured. Real happiness is a by-product of right living. And, at the heart of right living is the knowledge that we are all humans of equal worth and value. Together we can, will, and must change our world to make sure it reflects that.

    —Gillian Anderson and Jennifer Nadel

    Introduction

    It’s Not a Woman Problem, It’s a Work Problem

    It was a hair clip and reading glasses that stood in the way of Sarah getting her promotion—only she didn’t know it. Sarah was a white, forty-something senior manager who worked in the same large multinational company that I did. I was working in human resources, supporting the chief operations officer (COO) with managing and developing his team. Sarah was smart, capable, experienced, well-educated, and one of the best leaders I knew. Every year, as part of my role to facilitate the COO with his succession-planning process, I would help his leadership team decide who to promote. And every year Sarah’s name came up. And every year, the suggestion for her promotion was denied. I never agreed with the final decision, but it was inspiring to see Sarah’s resilience and determination, even after she had been given the news of not this year.

    The first year Sarah was passed over, she accepted the rejection and used it as an opportunity to get feedback, put in the work, and do whatever she could to become the next vice president. After all, that is what all the leadership books told her resilient and successful people do. Sarah stayed late at work, read all the popular books on women in leadership, and attended development training for women executives. Sarah applied everything she was taught by being more assertive, speaking up more in meetings, not apologizing as much, and asking for what she wanted. Sarah even perfected her handshake.

    The second year, again, her direct manager was the bearer of bad news. This time he acknowledged Sarah’s efforts, but gave her the corporate script, saying something like, Management doesn’t want you to think your initiatives have gone unnoticed. Quite the contrary. Keep doing what you’re doing. You just need more time in your role to round out your experience and judgment. You are just not quite ready.

    Sarah was more than ready for a promotion; it wasn’t her judgment or experience that was holding her back. Unbeknownst to me, just not quite ready was corporate speak for workplace sexism. After all, I had spent my entire life bel