I didn't read beyond the introduction as I decided this book wasn't for me because I don't work in HR nor am I directly responsible for hiring and recruitment. The book is also about the US, with different employment laws to navigate compared to the UK, so I didn't feel it was relevant to me. However I will say that achieving gender inequality in the workplace is always going to negatively impact men who have been indirectly benefitting from it for years by getting more promotions, better jobs etc., so going in with an introduction that insists everyone will benefit from equality is naive, and I think it is important to acknowledge that. I feel like the introduction to the book is almost pandering to the section of society who maintain the belief that discrimination based on sex is a thing of the past, despite all the statistics to the contrary. Those people are not going to read a book like this so why use your introduction to try and soothe their ruffled feathers?

As an HR and DEI Manager, I was instantly attracted to this book. Not many books focus on Gender Inequality at work, even though it's an important topic. The truth is most of HR are women, and when one tries to press the problems most employees faces when leading as a woman, we get frowned upon. I remember being called a misandrist for stating facts alone in regard to sexual harassment.

This book gave good and clever ideas as to which things to watch out for when wanting to be inclusive. The reason for my rating was the lack of storytelling. It was mostly facts. Actually, 15% of the book were sources alone.

The authors admit right off the bat that they are not concerned with intersectionality. Except...you can't talk about strategies to improve gender discrimination without acknowledging intersectionality. If I was a white woman working at a large corporation or in a high-salary career, this might be helpful.

This book definitely has a reader target audience, so before going into it, I would suggest thinking if this book would bring you any benefit. From my perspective, the target audience would be HR professionals who are considering improving people resources by changing and diversifying those and most probably thinking about or already applying DEI concepts. Additionally, this book might be a great data and information source for C-suite executives who care about diversity in the name of growth and are willing to be more hands-on with the human resources of the company.

The book consists of a lot of facts and more of a scientific research approach to present information which makes it less engaging to get through the book, so it's surely not a laid-back read for anyone who is interested in feminism or overall diversity. It covers and breaks down different topics to look at the issues from different angles and different perspectives in order to have a holistic view of the situation. Authors propose the PATH to solve inequality at work, and if the PATH may not be perfect and clear in all it offers, I would consider those suggestions to be one of the best we currently have. And my personal suggestion - don't just read the book, if the situation allows, act on the book's call-to-actions.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The book makes clear that there is a vicious circle of the structural discrimination inherent in gendered workplaces and the individual discrimination reflected in the behavior of individuals in those workplaces. Structural discrimination leads to unequal workplace outcomes for women and men. The gender stereotypes and status beliefs that drive these unequal outcomes foster individual discrimination. People in these workplaces incorporate expectations of unequal gender outcomes into their own attitudes, judgments, and behaviors.

This conduct, in turn, strengthens the persistence of structural discrimination. As a result, there is a process of mutual reinforcement of structural and individual discrimination, a highly pernicious process that most organisations’ DEI initiatives have been unable to counter.

But Beyond Bias doesn’t just theorise and present information in an academic fashion. Mounting a successful assault on gender inequality depends on a well‐conceived, properly resourced, and imaginatively led initiative and this is where PATH comes into play.

PATH is a four-prong program for directly attacking this structural discrimination—and with it, individuals’ discriminatory conduct:

Prioritize Elimination of Exclusionary Behavior
Adopt Bias-free Methods of Decision-Making
Treat Inequality in the Home as a Workplace Problem
Halt Unequal Performance Evaluations and Leadership Development Opportunities

PATH does not aim to reduce men’s leadership opportunities but rather to ensure that women’s opportunities are just as great. All we want to do it have the opportunity to fulfil our potential!

In brief-the book is excellent. Clearly written with a US audience in mind there is a lot here applicable to the UK context.

The first two chapters take stock of the situation-why the gender gap gets larger, the higher up the ladder and the limits of some of the initiatives that have been put in place to fix it. Kramer and Harris raise a compelling case that gender equality at work can only be addressed by acknowledging the systematic barriers of working women. They go on to outline the benefits of turning this around.

The book then goes on to set out their PATH method before examining how it can be embedded in to the processes and policies of organisation. There is a comprehensive change management plan which even goes so far as to look at potential challenges and practical ways they can be managed.

The thoroughness and practicality make it all seem possible. I particularly liked that the book explores our biases- how our unconscious beliefs (for both men and women) around the capabilities of gender shape how we show up in the workplace and how this impacts our opportunities to progress.

There is a lot of value in these pages. A must read.

I think this book provides a practical approach that's needed, but the focus is overwhelmingly on women. I expected it to be a little more inclusive as it discussed gender inequality.

I greatly enjoyed reading this, and it's a great expansion of Kramer and Harris' previous books that tackle more from an individual perspective on how to improve things yourself. Beyond Bias is arguably more aimed at those doing the hiring as opposed to the employee, but is packed with facts and stats which whilst US-centric I found enlightening if not somewhat disheartening as a millennial woman with a Masters degree, who found it hard to get on the ladder within the sector I studied.
I also found the segment on the pandemic intriguing in the result of the gender gap widening and being associated with the second shift. Definitely a read to pick up for learning more about gender inequality in the workplace.

The premise for this book is interesting - challenging the dominant 'equality and diversity training' approach. I think it's a hard thing to get right, doing this without pretending that structural issues don't exist.
The authors have already written about how women can navigate a hostile system, so this is about how to change that system.
I can picture HR professionals finding it useful because it has practical steps to take, and the structure is laid out in a logical way.
In terms of the structural issues, they advocate for treating inequality in the home as a workplace issue, and this is in line with the direction policy seems to be going in.
All in all, there isn't much else out there like this. It's worth a look.