Ep 186. Joan Williams: Healing the Rifts of Race, Gender, and Class

Work and Life with Stew Friedman

Joan C. Williams is a Distinguished Professor of Law, Hastings Foundation Chair, and Founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings Law. Joan has played a central role in reshaping the conversation about work, gender, and class over the past quarter century, and her path-breaking work helped create the field of work-family studies and modern workplace flexibility policies. She’s one of the 10 most cited scholars in her field and has written 11 books, including the influential What Works for Women at Work in 2014 and more recently, White Working Class in 2017. Her awards include the Families and Work Institute’s Work Life Legacy Award (2014), the American Bar Foundation’s Outstanding Scholar Award (2012), and the ABA’s Margaret Brent Women Award for Lawyers of Achievement (2006). Her Harvard Business Review article, “What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class” has been read over 3.7 million times and is now the most read article in HBR’s 90-plus year history.

In this episode, Stew and Joan talk about how class, in addition to race and gender, produces dividing lines that result in polarization and alienation. Joan describes and illustrates an evidence-based method for interrupting biases that reinforce systems of oppression in society and at work. They talk about prospects for change in the upcoming Biden-Harris administration, the awful impact of the pandemic on women’s lives and careers, women’s reproductive rights, and more.

Here then is an invitation, a challenge, for you, once you’ve listened to the conversation. Check out Bias Interrupters and take the quick survey then develop an idea for action based on your results. Share your ideas, and your reactions to this episode, by writing to Stew [e-mail] or via LinkedIn.

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