A good read for the weekend: ‘Glass Half-Broken’

Looking for a good read for this weekend? Moonshot News suggests reading ‘Glass Half-Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work’.

Why does the gender gap still persist and how can we close it? Women have made progress in the workforce, but only up to a point, argue Colleen Ammerman, director of the Harvard Business School Gender Initiative, and Boris Groysberg, a Harvard Business School professor of business administration.

For years women have made up the majority of college-educated workers in the United States. In 2019, the gap between the percentage of women and the percentage of men in the workforce was the smallest on record. But despite these statistics, women remain underrepresented in positions of power and status, with the highest-paying jobs the most gender-imbalanced.

The persistence of these inequalities begs the question: Why haven’t we made more progress?

In ‘Glass Half-Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work’, Ammerman and Groysberg reveal the pervasive organizational obstacles and managerial actions – limited opportunities for development, lack of role models and sponsors, and bias in hiring, compensation, and promotion – that create gender imbalances. 

Bringing to light the key findings from the latest research in psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, and economics, Ammerman and Groysberg show that throughout their careers – from entry-level to mid-level to senior-level positions – women get pushed out of the leadership pipeline, each time for different reasons. 

Ammerman and Groysberg present a hopeful road map to counter this, which includes advice for organizations and individuals on attracting candidates and guidance for male allies.

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