Books on how to be an ally and advance equity

The long holiday weekend can be the time to catch up on the reading you’ve been wanting to do, but haven’t found the time yet. Books can be great educators, teaching us the history of systemic inequality or immersing us in stories of people who have backgrounds and experiences different from our own. Learning, and in some cases unlearning, is an essential first step in covenanting. The alliance should not be limited to increasing your knowledge, but it is an important starting point. To help you get started, below is a short list of new books focused on gender equality and building equity for women of color.

Pay Up: The future of women and work (and why it’s different than you think)

By Reshma Saujani

Today there are almost two million fewer women in the labor market than there were at the start of the pandemic, with mothers and especially mothers of color from higher rates. This book presents an action plan for how we can turn a crisis into an opportunity to fix the broken systems that never worked for women and keep women in the workforce. It covers the story of how the role of women in the workforce took shape over the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as four forces of change with action steps to help advance the gender equality at work today.

The first, the few, the only: how women of color can redefine power in corporate America

By Deepa Purushothaman

One in five Americans is a woman of color, and women of color will be the majority of all women in America by 2060. according to Catalyst. These demographic shifts alone will not automatically alter the representation of leadership, where currently only 4% of C-suite leaders are women of color. This book explores topics such as the excessive labor that women of color take on for corporations in the name of building culture, confronting microaggressions and outdated norms, and new rules of power that will help create more inclusive workplaces.

“We need to broaden our impressions of what a leader is supposed to look like to allow more types of leadership to be valued and promoted,” says Deepa Purushothaman, author of The first, the few, the only: how women of color can redefine power in corporate America. “If you want to support women of color, you have to let us lead our way.”

Find your Unicorn space: Reclaim your creative life in a busy world

By Eve Rodsky

Time bias may be a significant factor for women who are pushed out of the workforce during the pandemic due to increased care responsibilities. Rodsky is on a mission to help women reclaim permission to be unavailable from their roles as partners, parents, or professionals and to take uninterrupted time for creative pursuits. She dubbed it “unicorn space” and says it’s not optional, but essential for mental health, happiness and even longevity. Other research has shown that creative pursuits can fight burnout and make you better at business.

In these pages, you’ll find how to rethink success and redefine what really matters to you, actionable strategies for giving yourself permission to be unavailable and asking for the creative time you need, and how to call on your partner for you. sustain.

Inclusion Revolution: The Essential Guide to Dismantling Racial Inequality in the Workplace

By Daisy Auger-Dominguez

Daisy Auger-Dominguez, head of human capital, workplace culture strategist and director of human resources at VICE Media Group, gets the message across in her new book that an inclusion revolution is about fixing part of one failing system at a time to create real change. She writes: “Inequality at work is a problem you can solve. I want you be that leader who enlightens others, not the one who dims it.

She gives us a roadmap to get there, from reducing bias in the hiring process to building better teams, to building a people-centric culture by creating stronger connections, to empowerment. measuring progress. Filled with exercises and questions for reflection, the book provides concrete tools that managers can put into action to address issues of race, power and exclusion.

His Allies: A Practical Toolkit to Support Men in Advocacy

By Hira Ali

The majority of leadership positions are still held by men, so hiring more men is key to advancing gender equality. After all, gender equality is not a women’s issue; it’s everyone’s business. For example, closing the gender wage gap could halve the poverty rate for women and add nearly $5 billion to GDP, according to the Women’s Policy Research Institute.

Author Hira Ali writes, “We need men to help us navigate a system and a world primarily designed for them, a world where they largely remain a dominant force occupying powerful roles everywhere. To bring more men into the conversation about gender equality, she created this toolkit on how men can be better allies to women in the workplace. It covers how men can challenge their own unconscious biases, real-world tactics for confronting biased behaviors, and ways men can be gender champions in their own organizations.

Build The Damn Thing: How To Start A Successful Business If You’re Not A Rich White Man

By Kathryn Finney

Only 2% venture capital funding goes to women-led businesses. Entrepreneur, investor and Genius Guild CEO Kathyrn Finney has published a guide for women and people of color to starting their business and finding the right investors. She writes: “While we builders have the talent, the ideas and the drive, we don’t have the same access to available capital.

His book offers a framework on how to go from an idea to a product to raise your first million in investments. Yes, it offers practical information, such as popular business models and the six main types of funding, but it also provides personal anecdotes from Finney, such as being the only black woman in an incubator program where she pitched an idea. of ethnic hair products, as well as other startup founders. She writes, “We dreamers build businesses because we want a creative life that we control. Entrepreneurship is the tool that helps us achieve this goal.