Vasudha Sharma’s new book Why She Must Lead: Bridging the Gap Between Opportunities and Women of Color is a manifesto on the situation of women, especially women of color, but it embraces all women, including minorities and women transgender, in the United States today. Vasudha is herself an immigrant in the United States. Originally from New Delhi, India, she now resides in the suburbs of Seattle, where she is a wife, mother of two children and a doctor of physical therapy. Her educated advocacy voice is what this country needs as America’s racial landscape changes. As Vasudha states in the book, based on a US Census study, by the year 2045, people of color will be the majority in the United States, and by 2060, women of color will represent the majority. Women’s. That reflects the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, and they don’t deserve to experience the same gender and racial issues we currently face. As a result, it is time for women’s voices to be heard.
Using extensive research, Why She Must Lead explores the situation for women of color today, primarily in the workplace, and then looks at ways to improve this situation. Vasudha is based on her personal experiences in India and the United States as a woman seeking to help other women. Early on, she realized the importance of feminism and came to believe that equality is a human right. In these pages, she shares the barriers and biases that stand in the way of making equality a reality for women. While women are progressing in senior leadership positions, they are still underrepresented at all levels of the workforce. Vasudha explores numerous steps to promote equity and inclusion, including through workplace recruitment and retention. She advocates for more mentoring and sponsorship of women of color. She discusses the role men can play as allies in advocating for the advancement of women in the workplace. While admitting that the concept of “empowerment” can seem threatening to men and organizations, Vasudha reveals how those fears are based on myths and a misunderstanding of what equity and empowerment mean. Finally, Vasudha encourages successful women to return the favor by helping their sisters.
Throughout the book, Vasudha does not shy away from stating hard facts and revealing the truths that many do not wish to talk about. Based on her personal and professional experiences, she states that “the most outstanding attribute of a successful woman is her ability to speak for herself.” If women don’t speak up for themselves, they are often ignored or passed over for advancement. Oftentimes, there are biases that management is not even aware of in promoting men over women. Some of these include the belief that a woman will simply work until she is married, that she will leave when she has children, or that advancement is not as important to her as her family life. Such myths must be discarded. While women have long talked about the need to break the glass ceiling, Vasudha reveals that for women of color it’s a concrete ceiling. However, the most pressing problem is not a roof but a broken rung on the ladder of advancement. She offers solutions on how to repair the ladder.
Vasudha notes that while many men are open to helping women move forward, they don’t always realize the false biases and prejudices that can cloud their judgment and make them unfair to their female colleagues. They may also make sexist assumptions. For example, masculine explanations often occur in the workplace, where a man feels that he must talk down to a woman in order to explain something to her. Because our society has come to believe that women should be defended, discrimination against women has become more subtle, resulting in micro-aggressive behavior, such as male explanations, which are often invisible.
Vasudha brings all of these issues to light while accepting men as allies and providing clear processes for how they can help women move forward. One of my favorite passages in the book focuses on Vasudha’s role as a mother of two children:
“People often ask me, as a mother of two boys, why am I still such an advocate for women. Wouldn’t that put men on the back burner? I always get the same answer: I am responsible for my sisterhood, that he faces the same challenges as me due to the broken system, and I have an obligation to help my children understand and recognize the importance of equality in the home and professional world.
“Even as I waited for my children to come into the world, I envisioned for my children: compassion, good citizenship, an excellent college education, successful careers, and achieving all that they strived for in their lives. Also, I wanted them to be feminists like their dad”.
Vasudha’s meticulous research and well thought out arguments will open the eyes of both male and female readers. I believe that all HR professionals and managers should read this book. I also believe that all women, especially women of color, will benefit from reading it. Perhaps most importantly, Why She Must Lead she reveals “why she must talk.” Vasudha has spoken to this book and hopefully the message from her will spread. As she says near the end:
“I don’t believe change can happen one person or one couple at a time. The currents of culture carry the wave of change. To create those currents, we need to stir up the stories and bring them to the surface. That’s why I’m sharing mine. Plus , I don’t want to project that I know everything when it comes to finding solutions for equality. I had a good set of challenges and failures. The truth is that I learned more by sharing them.”
