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 careervirtually all high status, highly compensated fieldsher 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.

Andrea S. Kramer is a partner in the international law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP. She is based in its Chicago office and is head of McDermott’s Financial Products, Trading and Derivatives Group and a member of its Global Renewable Energy, Emissions and New Products Group and its International Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Group. She is a founding member of the Diversity Committee, and chair of the Gender Diversity Sub-committee.

Andie is nationally recognized as an advocate for women’s equality and an expert on gender communication. For almost 30 years, she has helped women navigate the turbulent waters of career advancement in speeches, workshops, articles, mentoring, problem solving, and one-on-one coaching. Andie founded and serves as board chair of WLMA (the Women’s Leadership and Mentoring Alliance). WLMA is a nationwide organization that provides professional women of all ages and stages in their careers with leadership development and mentoring opportunities (www.wlmaconnect.org).

In 2011, Andie contributed four articles to the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois that have been widely distributed and are extremely influential. She co-authored the ABA’s 2013 guide,What You Need to Know About Negotiating Your Compensation, which provides valuable advice to women lawyers across the country.

She was named one of the 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal and received the prestigious Founder’s Award of the Chicago Bar Association’s Alliance for Women. TheChicago Tribune featured her as a Remarkable Woman” and Chicago Lawyer magazine recognized her as an Inspiring Innovator” for her efforts to promote gender equality.

Alton B. Harris was a founding partner of the Chicago law firm Ungaretti & Harris and chaired the firm’s financial services group. In February of 2015, Ungaretti & Harris merged with the international law firm Nixon Peabody. Al is a frequent writer and lecturer on the financial markets, financial regulation, and corporate governance. As an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University Law School, he teaches courses on the regulation of derivative products and the financial markets.

As Andie’s husband and former law partner, Al is a sounding board and mentor to Andie. Although they share similar views on the issues of gender communication, their perspectives are not identical. Andie and Al have collaborated for decades, most recently on the article Taking Control: Women, Gender Stereotypes, and Impression Management.”