202: Overcome the Invisible Barriers Holding Women Back at Work | with Michelle King, Netflix’s Director of Inclusion

In recent years, most companies have been trying to advance the representation of women and minorities in leadership positions.  For example, most organizations have diversity recruitment targets as well as Diversity & Inclusion programs, including initiatives like mentoring, networking groups, and unconscious bias training. But despite these efforts, women account for only 4.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs, 8% of top earners, and 17% of Fortune 500 board seats. Only 43% of HR executives think these approaches are effective at all.

An important new book by a woman who is a PhD and the Director of Inclusion at Netflix tackles the question of what needs to change to help women not only advance but also thrive at organizations. It’s called The Fix: Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work, and among the surprising findings is that making the workplace changes she recommends will not only help more women and minorities succeed at work, they will also help more men advance and thrive as well.

Michelle King, PhD, is a leading global expert in gender and organizations and Director of Inclusion at Netflix. Previously she was head of the UN Women’s Global Innovation Coalition for Change. Michelle has spent her career advancing women in innovation and technology, leading global diversity and inclusion programs and advocating for women at work. She is an Advisory Board member for Girl Up, the United Nations Foundation’s adolescent girl campaign, and host of The Fix, a podcast that shares the stories, challenges and triumphs of women across innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. She speaks frequently on the topic of gender equality, and contributes regularly to Forbes on the topic of women’s advancement at work. Her work has been published in Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, Scoop and TIME magazine.

Watch a clip from the interview:

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Website: michellepking.com

Podcast: thefixpodcast.org

Book: The Fix

LinkedIn: /in/michellepking/

Twitter: @michellepking

Instagram: /michellepenelopeking

TEDx Talk: youtube.com/watch?v=eMBrR5YgfC0

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app:

Apple Podcast | Google Play | Spotify |  Stitcher  | Other Ways to Listen