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Stop Fixing Women: Why Building Fairer Workplaces Is Everybody's Business
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Millions of words have been spent in our quest to explain men’s seemingly never-ending dominance in boardrooms, in parliaments, in the bureaucracy and in almost every workplace. So why is gender inequality still such a pressing issue? Wage inequality between men and women seems one of the intractables of our age. Women are told they need to back themselves more, stop margi
...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
August 1st 2017
by NewSouth
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Start your review of Stop Fixing Women: Why Building Fairer Workplaces Is Everybody's Business

Good stuff, but will the necessary people ever read it?

I found this tricky to rate but mostly because I haven't read anything like it before, not because I didn't like it. This book shows how workplace gender discrimination needs to be tackled by changing male attitudes, and organisational structures and practices, as opposed to fixing the things that make women different to men. The book is very readable and I liked the little streak of snarky, sassy humour throughout. It is set out well and the chapters flow into each other nicely. There are a few
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I tore through this in less than 24 hours, and found it an incredibly engaging and thought provoking read!
I found the two chapters looking at quotas in senior leadership roles/Boards, and mentors/sponsors particularly interesting. I appreciated how well researched this was, and I hope men and women alike pick this up and take something meaningful from it. Workplaces (and society generally) would certainly benefit from this being read widely!
I found the two chapters looking at quotas in senior leadership roles/Boards, and mentors/sponsors particularly interesting. I appreciated how well researched this was, and I hope men and women alike pick this up and take something meaningful from it. Workplaces (and society generally) would certainly benefit from this being read widely!

This book covers a very important topic, but there is sadly nothing new here. I do wonder what it will take to actually get change in workplaces when there are already so many statistics, books and discussions about inequality and disparity and causes. Good to see an Australian perspective. I've always been slightly negative about the Male Champions of Change concept, but the author shows why it is important and how it can help.
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Apr 21, 2017
Natalie S
added it
For years society’s “fingers” have been squarely pointed at women. We’ve been told what to do, what to avoid, to lean in, speak up, support each other and back ourselves. But has this information – which is sometimes contradictory – actually helped achieve anything? The gender pay gap remains largely unchanged and the percentage of women in senior management and leadership roles remains at a disappointing low. Thankfully, leading women’s commentator, Catherine Fox advocates a different approach
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Catherine Fox is one of Australia's best commentators on women in the workplace, a role she has held since before many of us realised it was a thing.
She cuts to the real issues and calls out the bullshit. So for this reason alone it is worth reading whatever she puts to print.
I particularly like her call to dismantle the 'deficit model' to explain why women are not represented highly in leadership roles - the one that suggests its because we lack confidence, or ability, or don't speak up or what ...more
She cuts to the real issues and calls out the bullshit. So for this reason alone it is worth reading whatever she puts to print.
I particularly like her call to dismantle the 'deficit model' to explain why women are not represented highly in leadership roles - the one that suggests its because we lack confidence, or ability, or don't speak up or what ...more

The title tells you all you need to know. Catherine Fox makes the case that the unequal pay and representation of women in the workplace is not the fault of women, nor a problem that women need to bear the responsibility for solving. Men need to also be involved in changing the structures that keep women in the place they are currently in. The chapter "From victim blaming to system shaming" contains the key points on this topic.
Later in the book, Fox makes the point that removing the structures ...more
Later in the book, Fox makes the point that removing the structures ...more

In this book, the author examines the reasons why men’s seemingly never-ending dominance in boardrooms, in parliaments, in the bureaucracy, and in almost every workplace.
Focused on the typical differences of wage inequality and the absence of women in the higher ranks of the companies. Usually women are told they need to back themselves more, stop marginalising themselves, negotiate better, speak up, support each other, strike a balance between work and home. This searing book argues that insist ...more
Focused on the typical differences of wage inequality and the absence of women in the higher ranks of the companies. Usually women are told they need to back themselves more, stop marginalising themselves, negotiate better, speak up, support each other, strike a balance between work and home. This searing book argues that insist ...more

The main premise of the book is that it’s not the fault of women that they are not getting to ‘sit at the table’, get unequal pay for the same job and the myriad other inequalities that abound. Some may keep saying sorry or not speaking up or not ‘leaning in’ but those comments have become almost stereotypical. What needs to happen is that powerful men need to take action to allow the space for talented women to enter the arena and the men make themselves sponsors, mentors and donors in the busi
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Great. I was reading and remembering every time someone has said that women need to be more confident, to my own internalising of the message that women have to be better to get the same. Get ready to be filled with righteous indignation as you read this book and want to get up and do something about fixing the system, not fixing women.
Saying that, there wasn’t anything in the book that was new to me and it could have done with a few less examples, especially repeated examples. Other than than, ...more
Saying that, there wasn’t anything in the book that was new to me and it could have done with a few less examples, especially repeated examples. Other than than, ...more
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