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Title details for Fair Shake by Naomi Cahn - Available

Fair Shake

Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy

by Naomi Cahn
June Carbone
ebook
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A stirring, comprehensive look at the state of women in the workforce—why women's progress has stalled, how our economy fosters unproductive competition, and how we can fix the system that holds women back.
In an era of supposed great equality, women are still falling behind in the workplace. Even with more women in the workforce than in decades past, wage gaps continue to increase. It is the most educated women who have fallen the furthest behind. Blue-collar women hold the most insecure and badly paid jobs in our economy. And even as we celebrate high-profile representation—women on the board of Fortune 500 companies and our first female vice president—women have limited recourse when they experience harassment and discrimination.

Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy explains that the system that governs our economy—a winner-take-all economy—is the root cause of these myriad problems. The WTA economy self-selects for aggressive, cutthroat business tactics, which creates a feedback loop that sidelines women. The authors, three legal scholars, call this feedback loop "the triple bind": if women don't compete on the same terms as men, they lose; if women do compete on the same terms as men, they're punished more harshly for their sharp elbows or actual misdeeds; and when women see that they can't win on the same terms as men, they take themselves out of the game (if they haven't been pushed out already). With odds like these stacked against them, it's no wonder women feel like, no matter how hard they work, they can't get ahead.

Fair Shake is not a "fix the woman" book; it's a "fix the system" book. It not only diagnoses the problem of what's wrong with the modern economy, but shows how, with awareness and collective action, we can build a truly just economy for all.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 7, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781982115142

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781982115142
      • File size: 4247 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      October 1, 2022

      Even before COVID, women were stumbling further behind in the economy, and the coauthors--all law professors--blame an unhealthily competitive business environment ruled by what they call the Triple Bind: Women lose whether or not they compete on the same terms as men, and when they do, they often remove themselves from the workplace--or get pushed out. So far, they show, laws have failed to protect women at work.

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      March 15, 2024
      An account of the search for economic justice for women. Legal scholars Cahn, Carbone, and Levit argue persuasively that the persistent wage gap between men and women is a result of a "winner take all" (WTA) economy, in which workplaces offer increased rewards for top executives while pitting employees against each other. Those "calling the shots," the authors attest, "engineer results that may not be in the collective interests of the workers themselves, the long-term health of the company, or the social order." In a WTA economy, businesses may welcome women in entry-level positions and promote them, but the women "disappear as they move up the corporate ranks." They often are marginalized, receive smaller bonuses, and suffer harassment. By examining women's lawsuits against their employers for sex discrimination or retaliation for whistleblowing, the authors conclude that women are trapped in a "triple bind." They may not see the invisible rules by which men play; when they try to play by those rules, they are more likely to be fired; and when they see the unscrupulous things they are required to do, they take themselves out of the running. Among the companies the authors discuss are Tesla, Walmart, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Uber. They also consider women's disadvantages as gig workers, without benefits or protections. The authors see the same toxic environments that blight businesses taking over politics. Calling for a new set of values that prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and productivity rather than competition, amorality, and self-interest, the authors advocate for significant actions, such as mobilizing public outrage, continuing to take legal action, capping the accumulation of power at the top, promoting diversity, providing adequate and affordable child care, raising the minimum wage and instituting income guarantees, and investing in children's education and communities. Robust evidence for the need for systemic change.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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