Ep 186. Joan Williams: Healing the Rifts of Race, Gender, and Class

<p>Joan C. Williams is a Distinguished Professor of Law, Hastings Foundation Chair, and Founding Director of the <a href="https://worklifelaw.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings Law</a>. Joan has played a central role in reshaping the conversation about work, gender, and class over the past quarter century, and her path-breaking work helped create the field of work-family studies and modern workplace flexibility policies. She’s one of the 10 most cited scholars in her field and has written 11 books, including the influential <a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-Works-Women-Work-Patterns/dp/1479814318/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&amp;keywords=joan+williams&amp;qid=1605200948&amp;sr=8-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>What Works for Women at Work</em></a><em> </em>in 2014 and more recently, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/White-Working-Class-Overcoming-Cluelessness/dp/1633693783/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1605200992&amp;sr=8-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>White Working Class </em></a>in 2017. Her awards include the Families and Work Institute’s Work Life Legacy Award (2014), the American Bar Foundation’s Outstanding Scholar Award (2012), and the ABA’s Margaret Brent Women Award for Lawyers of Achievement (2006). Her <em>Harvard Business Review</em> article, “What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class” has been read over 3.7 million times and is now the most read article in HBR’s 90-plus year history.</p><br><p>In this episode, Stew and Joan&nbsp; talk about how class, in addition to race and gender, produces dividing lines that result in polarization and alienation.&nbsp; Joan describes and illustrates an evidence-based method for interrupting biases that reinforce systems of oppression in society and at work.&nbsp; They talk about prospects for change in the upcoming Biden-Harris administration, the awful impact of the pandemic on women’s lives and careers, women’s reproductive rig