Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy 

Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy is published by Simon & Schuster. Co-authors Naomi Cahn (University of Virginia School of Law), June Carbone (University of Minnesota Law School), and Nancy Levit (University of Missouri — Kansas City School of Law) explore issues related to gender at work with some startling results. In an era of supposed great equality, women are still falling behind in the workplace.

What inspired you and your co-authors to write this book? 

We were shocked to find that, in an era of supposed gender equality, women are losing ground in the workplace. Women’s educational attainments used to be the key to advancement, but today, at a time when women are better educated than men, it is the most educated women who have fallen the furthest behind. We realized that if present trends continue, women will never catch up and we wanted to explain why. 

What does this book explore? 

The reasons we found why women are falling farther behind: The new corporate system, which has boosted CEO pay into the stratosphere and rewarded hedge funds and tech companies that “run fast and break things,” has fundamentally changed the ways that companies function. In the days of the organization man of the 1950s, executives bragged “My company is bigger than your company, my company is more innovative than your company.” Today, executives brag “My bonus is bigger than your bonus, my bank account in the Cayman Islands is bigger than your bank account.” We describe how the ambitious bend institutions to serve their own interests through the creation of “new boys clubs” that outflank the restraints of the old order, enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else. We explain why women can’t win in this new game and provide the best strategy to fight it. 

What differentiates this book from your other work that focuses on gender and the workplace? 

This is a popular book. We try to describe these shifts through the stories of the litigants in actual cases. And while my practice career focused on employment discrimination cases, my academic work has been about the family. For me, this book is a return to my roots as a litigator who handled cases of discrimination and misconduct in the workplace. 

What are a few key takeaways from your book? 

When we looked at women in business, finance, and technology, as well as teachers, dentists’ offices, and Walmart, we were surprised to find that every story turned out to be the same story. CEOs use high-stakes bonus systems to bypass traditional restraints and produce immediate results — whether higher reported earnings or student test scores. The new system pits employees against each other in the competition for larger bonuses and looks the other way at how the successful produce their impressive numbers. 

Who is your target audience? 

Women who feel they are overlooked at work or harassed or blocked and wonder why. Those who want to understand just how the system has been rigged on behalf of the wealthy and against the powerless. Women — and their supporters — who are inspired by the #MeToo movement or teachers’ efforts to counter the politicians who have made them punching bags. And anyone who sees the world around them falling apart and wants a playbook for fighting back. 

What is something you were surprised to discover when writing this book? 

We were surprised when we realized that women had become the majority of shareholders in large companies during the 1920s and the New Deal championed the idea that the stock market should be “made safe for widows and orphans.” We were stunned when we then realized that New Deal success meant that the corporation man of the 1950s could have been a woman while, today, a female version of Elon Musk, who thumbs his nose at securities regulation, would almost certainly be in jail.