The premise for this book is interesting - challenging the dominant 'equality and diversity training' approach. I think it's a hard thing to get right, doing this without pretending that structural issues don't exist.
The authors have already written about how women can navigate a hostile system, so this is about how to change that system.
I can picture HR professionals finding it useful because it has practical steps to take, and the structure is laid out in a logical way.
In terms of the structural issues, they advocate for treating inequality in the home as a workplace issue, and this is in line with the direction policy seems to be going in.
All in all, there isn't much else out there like this. It's worth a look.

I greatly enjoyed reading this, and it's a great expansion of Kramer and Harris' previous books that tackle more from an individual perspective on how to improve things yourself. Beyond Bias is arguably more aimed at those doing the hiring as opposed to the employee, but is packed with facts and stats which whilst US-centric I found enlightening if not somewhat disheartening as a millennial woman with a Masters degree, who found it hard to get on the ladder within the sector I studied.
I also found the segment on the pandemic intriguing in the result of the gender gap widening and being associated with the second shift. Definitely a read to pick up for learning more about gender inequality in the workplace.

The book makes clear that there is a vicious circle of the structural discrimination inherent in gendered workplaces and the individual discrimination reflected in the behavior of individuals in those workplaces. Structural discrimination leads to unequal workplace outcomes for women and men. The gender stereotypes and status beliefs that drive these unequal outcomes foster individual discrimination. People in these workplaces incorporate expectations of unequal gender outcomes into their own attitudes, judgments, and behaviors.

This conduct, in turn, strengthens the persistence of structural discrimination. As a result, there is a process of mutual reinforcement of structural and individual discrimination, a highly pernicious process that most organisations’ DEI initiatives have been unable to counter.

But Beyond Bias doesn’t just theorise and present information in an academic fashion. Mounting a successful assault on gender inequality depends on a well‐conceived, properly resourced, and imaginatively led initiative and this is where PATH comes into play.

PATH is a four-prong program for directly attacking this structural discrimination—and with it, individuals’ discriminatory conduct:

Prioritize Elimination of Exclusionary Behavior
Adopt Bias-free Methods of Decision-Making
Treat Inequality in the Home as a Workplace Problem
Halt Unequal Performance Evaluations and Leadership Development Opportunities

PATH does not aim to reduce men’s leadership opportunities but rather to ensure that women’s opportunities are just as great. All we want to do it have the opportunity to fulfil our potential!

In brief-the book is excellent. Clearly written with a US audience in mind there is a lot here applicable to the UK context.

The first two chapters take stock of the situation-why the gender gap gets larger, the higher up the ladder and the limits of some of the initiatives that have been put in place to fix it. Kramer and Harris raise a compelling case that gender equality at work can only be addressed by acknowledging the systematic barriers of working women. They go on to outline the benefits of turning this around.

The book then goes on to set out their PATH method before examining how it can be embedded in to the processes and policies of organisation. There is a comprehensive change management plan which even goes so far as to look at potential challenges and practical ways they can be managed.

The thoroughness and practicality make it all seem possible. I particularly liked that the book explores our biases- how our unconscious beliefs (for both men and women) around the capabilities of gender shape how we show up in the workplace and how this impacts our opportunities to progress.

There is a lot of value in these pages. A must read.