Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work

More than fifty years after the beginning of the Women's Movement and forty years after passage of Title IX, women are still not "making it" in traditionally male careers. Women start their careers on parity with men but generally end them far earlier, having achieved less status, lower compensation, and less satisfaction than men. Breaking Through Bias explains that it is the stereotypes about women, men, work, leadership, and family that hold women back, and it presents an integrated set of communication techniques that women can use to avoid the discriminatory consequences of these stereotypes. Women define career success in a wide variety of ways. But whatever a woman's personal definition, if she is in a traditionally male-dominated career--virtually all high status, highly compensated fields--her career is at risk because of pervasive gender stereotypes. This highly practical book makes clear that women don't need to change who they are to succeed in their chosen careers, and they certainly don't need to act more like men. Women do, however, need to be attuned to the negative gender stereotypes that surround them; they need to anticipate the biases these stereotypes foster, and they need to manage the impressions they make to avoid or overcome these biases. Based on the authors' personal experiences as business leaders and practicing attorneys, involvement in compensation and hiring decisions, extensive mentoring activities, and numerous scientific and academic studies, Breaking Through Bias presents unique, practical, and effective advice about how women can at last break through gender bias in the workplace and win at the career advancement game.

About the Author :
David Ramsay Steele, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, grew up in Birmingham, England, and graduated with a degree in sociology from the University of Hull. He is a fellow of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University and is editorial director of a publishing house in Chicago, where he lives with his wife and daughter. Karen Saltus has narrated television and radio commercials, audiobooks, textbooks, multimedia, film, and voice prompts for interactive telephone applications. She began her career thirty years ago at a radio station in Portland, Maine. She later became a creative director for a station in Massachussetts. In 1994 she became a full-time freelance voice-over talent.

Review :
"The authors discuss managing perceptions, being aware of body language, crafting communications, and using anger to its best effect ... a well-organized, well-thought-out call to action." -- "Publishers Weekly"