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laurapk's review
3.0
An interesting overview of the way work culture in the USA makes it difficult for people of color and women to get hired and advance in prestigious companies/ accademia/ traditionally male and white workspaces. The author focused on Black communities, but the points brought up are applicable to other minority communities as well.
However, I felt like this book worked better as an introductory text on the ways overt and unconscious bias affects racial and gender minorities. It did not provide any big "aha!" moments, like Linda Villarosa's "Under the Skin", or Jessica Nordell's "The End of Bias." As an immigrant woman, I recognized Wingfield's scenarios from my own experience (there is a lot of overlap between the way people of collor and immigrants are treated, unfortunately).
Unfortunately, Wingfield didn't do as much deconstruction of Western work places as I'd have liked. I profondly disliked the use of "male" and "female" work spaces, which was repeatedly mentioned without any challenging of gender norms. I understand that some jobs are more male or female dominated, but a little questioning of these norms would have been greatly appreciated (see Eugenia Cheng's "X+Y"). I also deflated when I realized that the author did not plan on digging deeper into the use of networks for job hubting--we challanged the gendered and racial segregation of the networks, not the dependency on networks for getting a job. I migrated from a Eastern-European country that tried to avoid over-relying on networks after so much nepotism was channeled through these networks in communism. Networking to get a job may be the way to do things now, but it promotes sexism, xenophobia, and excludes neurodivergent and introverted individuals. Networking to get a job is so much removed from meritcracy it's not even funny. The author did not seem to wish to rock the boat too much. In many ways, this was realistic: we are unlikely to see major changes in the way we seek jobs and hire people in the near future. But a more courageous dream on how we can reorganize workplaces would be nice. Sometimes, we need to spell our dreams out repeatedly before we can start turning them into reality.'
However, I felt like this book worked better as an introductory text on the ways overt and unconscious bias affects racial and gender minorities. It did not provide any big "aha!" moments, like Linda Villarosa's "Under the Skin", or Jessica Nordell's "The End of Bias." As an immigrant woman, I recognized Wingfield's scenarios from my own experience (there is a lot of overlap between the way people of collor and immigrants are treated, unfortunately).
Unfortunately, Wingfield didn't do as much deconstruction of Western work places as I'd have liked. I profondly disliked the use of "male" and "female" work spaces, which was repeatedly mentioned without any challenging of gender norms. I understand that some jobs are more male or female dominated, but a little questioning of these norms would have been greatly appreciated (see Eugenia Cheng's "X+Y"). I also deflated when I realized that the author did not plan on digging deeper into the use of networks for job hubting--we challanged the gendered and racial segregation of the networks, not the dependency on networks for getting a job. I migrated from a Eastern-European country that tried to avoid over-relying on networks after so much nepotism was channeled through these networks in communism. Networking to get a job may be the way to do things now, but it promotes sexism, xenophobia, and excludes neurodivergent and introverted individuals. Networking to get a job is so much removed from meritcracy it's not even funny. The author did not seem to wish to rock the boat too much. In many ways, this was realistic: we are unlikely to see major changes in the way we seek jobs and hire people in the near future. But a more courageous dream on how we can reorganize workplaces would be nice. Sometimes, we need to spell our dreams out repeatedly before we can start turning them into reality.'
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