Gender Balancing your Office Book Shelf
A list of business resources from women and non-binary authors
Last week, my colleague and I gave five books to a new client as part of an ‘innovation library starter kit’. In an embarrassing moment of hindsight, I realized that these five books are written by white men. In fact, many of the books that my team and I (currently) keep on our office shelf and the articles we reference on Slack are overwhelmingly dominated by male and white voices. Cringe. Oy. Uffda. 🤦♀️
But this problem extends well beyond our office. According to my desk research today, up to two-thirds of business books are written by men and women’s books are priced around 45% lower (the publishing industry’s overall diversity stats are an indicator of this outcome). And in order to get our library to a more equitable state, I need to do better. We need to do better. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to be curating and amplifying a diverse set of voices, ideas, experiences, and opinions. Not just in meetings or projects, but in the resources our teams turn to for inspiration and guidance.
So, I dropped a note to some of my well-read friends to get their help starting a list of books by not men, and we’ve got a good one going! Join me in righting this imbalance: please drop other recommendations into the comments, and I’ll make this a never-ending reading list to complement the other books that are coming out from men in the business world.
Business / innovation / leadership / design books authored by women and non-binary authors (in no particular order):
- Brave Not Perfect: Fear Less Fail More by Reshma Saujani
- Mistakes I Made at Work — 25 Influential Women Reflect on What They Got Out of Getting It Wrong by Jessica Bacal
- Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne marie brown
- Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
- The Art of Gathering: How we meet and why it matters by Priya Parker
- Reframe: Shift the way you work, think, and innovate by Mona Patel
- Making of a Manager by Julie Zhao
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
- Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules in Work and Life by Francesca Gino
- Convivial Toolbox: Generative Research for the Front End of Design by Liz Sanders
- Happier Now: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Embrace Everyday Moments (Even the Difficult Ones) by Nataly Kogan
- Product Marketing Debunked: The Essential Go-to-Market Guide by Yasmeen Turayhi
- Expect to Win by Carla A. Harris
- We Need to Talk: How to have Conversations That Matter by Celeste Headlee
- The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently by Sunni Brown
- Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott
- A Designer’s Critical Alphabet by Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel
- Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock
- Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change by Beth Comstock
- Turning to One Another by Margaret J Wheatly
- Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman, and Michael Quinn Patton
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
- Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi
- Purpose Driven Leadership: Building and Fostering Effective Teams by Brigette Hyacinth
- Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra
- The Moonshot Effect: Disrupting Business as Usual by Kate Purmal and Lisa Goldman
- Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Ducksworth
