In honor of Women’s History Month, our March 8, 2022, Ask SGO on LinkedIn Live explored topics around gender and womanhood in the workplace. We recognize that like many of our social identities, while gender is a social construct, it doesn’t exclude us from having certain privileges or disadvantages due to the socio-cultural and political climate we live in. With that in mind, when we refer to women, we are not talking about biological sex but rather a social status and label many of us identify with (or have accepted) as our identity. During our conversation, several recommended books, podcasts, or films were mentioned as reference points that you may want to consider reading, listening to or watching to learn more about issues of gender discrimination and feminism.
Podcasts
Intersectionality Matters! with Kimberle Crenshaw
Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.
Code Switch from NPR
This podcast tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor. We explore how race affects every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between. This podcast makes all of us part of the conversation — because we’re all part of the story.
Maintenance Phase
Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon debunk the junk science behind health and wellness fads. Their investigations force listeners to confront the anti-fat bias that our culture has been awash in for decades.
Books
“Hood Feminism” by Mikki Kendall
Today’s feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?
Angela Davis’ Women, Race and Class
Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.
Abolition. Feminism. Now. Angela Davis & Gina Dent
In this remarkable collaborative work, leading scholar-activists Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie surface the often unrecognized genealogies of queer, anti-capitalist, internationalist, grassroots, and women-of-color-led feminist movements, struggles, and organizations that have helped to define abolition and feminism in the twenty-first century.
Feminism is for Everybody, bell hooks
Acclaimed cultural critic bell hooks offers an open-hearted and welcoming vision of gender, sexuality, and society in this inspiring and accessible volume. In engaging and provocative style, bell hooks introduces a popular theory of feminism rooted in common sense and the wisdom of experience. Hers is a vision of a beloved community that appeals to all those committed to equality, mutual respect, and justice. hooks applies her critical analysis to the most contentious and challenging issues facing feminists today, including reproductive rights, violence, race, class, and work.
Beyond Leaning In, Melanie Ho
Professional women are tired of being told to just lean in. What about…
- the challenges that make it harder for women to lean in,
- the unequal rewards and penalties when they do, and
- the fact that “leaning in and acting more like men” ignores the stereotypically feminine traits needed for modern leadership?
Through the perspective of female and male characters across generations, readers gain new insights about why gender gaps are so hard to close despite our best intentions. We are inspired to think differently about what both individuals and organizations must do to ensure all employees thrive.
Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf
The bestselling classic that redefined our view of the relationship between beauty and female identity. In today’s world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women’s movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It’s the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of “the flawless beauty.”
Films
“Knock Down the House” on Netflix
A young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada, and a registered nurse in Missouri build a movement of insurgent candidates to challenge powerful incumbents in Congress. At a moment of historic volatility in American politics, these four women decide to fight back, setting themselves on a journey that will change their lives and their country forever. Their efforts result in a legendary upset.
The Great American Lie
The Great American Lie examines the roots of systemic inequalities through a unique gender lens. With America facing widening economic inequality and stagnant social mobility, this film takes audiences on an empathy journey, inspiring a path forward.
Additional Resources
McKinsey Report: Women in the Workplace 2021
McKinsey Report: Being Transgender at Work
Seven charts that show COVID-19’s impact on women’s employment
Why Aren’t Female Founders Getting a Bigger Piece of the Pie? Theories Abound Sixteen defining moments for gender equality in 2021