First published 2018
Women hold less than twenty percent of leadership roles across American institutions despite comprising half the population. Legal scholar Deborah Rhode investigates this persistent gap in her systematic analysis of gender and power. She documents how women make up most college graduates but occupy only a quarter of university presidencies, earn nearly half of law degrees but represent just seventeen percent of major firm equity partners, and constitute a third of MBA recipients while holding merely five percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions. Rhode argues that individual solutions cannot solve structural problems. She examines family obligations, unconscious bias, and professional network exclusion as key barriers. The author surveys politics, business, law, and academia while drawing insights from interviews with prominent female leaders. Rhode proposes concrete remedies including stronger mentorship networks, work-life balance policies, and early career training programs. Her research reveals why organizational change requires addressing deep cultural conditions rather than expecting women to adapt to existing systems.
Genres: gender-studies, business, feminism, leadership, non-fiction, academic
Vibes: informative, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: social-commentary, systemic-issues
256 pages · Paperback · Oxford University Press