The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color can Redefine Power in Corporate America by Deepa Purushothaman
What's It About?
Women of Color is the fastest-growing segment in the corporate workforce, yet all too often they are still the first, the few, or the only ones in a department or company.In Deepa Purushothaman’s new book, The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America (Harper Business), she lays the groundwork for how women of color can redefine success on their own terms.
For too long, corporate structures and cultural conditioning have made them believe that in order to “fit in” and become successful, they must hide or change their true selves. As a result, many of them have scars from climbing the corporate ladder.
In the book, Purushothaman states that workplaces must evolve with modern culture and that women of color have the potential to lead that transformation. She believes that, too often, companies make a great effort to talk about success and rising demographics in their organization, but ultimately fail to do anything more than virtue-signal.
MAKING MEANINGFUL CHANGE IN THE WORKPLACE
Instead of only celebrating “the first, the few, the only” women leaders among us, Purushothaman makes the point that it’s time companies learn from these collective experiences, focus on what still needs to change, and actually act.
Throughout the book, Purushothaman draws upon the experience of over 500 women she’s interviewed on the matter. She highlights both individual stories as well as the numerous commonalities between them that she has observed from having these discussions and analyzes and compares these stories to her own personal experience. She then uses the overall parallels to drive home not only the ugly reality of the way WOC are treated in the current landscape, but also as the foundations for potential solutions.
The experience and stories, along with actionable takeaways shared by Purushothaman and those like her are sure to resonate with a wide range of readers, from CEOs and HR teams to managers and employees. The First, The Few, The Only is corporate America’s clarion call for redefining the workplace and making it work for the WOC of today and the future.
