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 encompasses all women, including transgender and minority women. , in America today. Vasudha is herself an immigrant in the United States. Originally from New Delhi, India, today she resides in the suburbs of Seattle, where she is a wife, mother of two children and a doctor of physical therapy. Your 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 2045, people of color will be the majority in the United States, and by 2060, women of color will account for the majority of the women. That reflects the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, and they do not deserve to experience the same sexist and racial issues that we face today. As a result, it is time for women’s voices to be heard.

Using painstaking 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 draws on her personal experiences in India and the United States as a woman seeking to help other women. From the beginning, she realized the importance of feminism and came to believe that fairness is a human right. In these pages, share the barriers and biases that stand in the way of making equity a reality for women. While women are progressing into senior leadership positions, they are still underrepresented at all levels of the workforce. Vasudha explores numerous steps to promote fairness and inclusion, including through recruitment and retention in the workplace. He advocates for more mentoring and sponsorship of women of color. Discuss the role that men can play as allies in promoting the advancement of women in the workplace. While admitting that the concept of “empowerment” may seem like a threat to men and organizations, Vasudha reveals how those fears are based on myths and a misunderstanding of what equity and empowerment means. Lastly, Vasudha encourages successful women to benefit from helping their sisters.

Throughout the book, Vasudha does not shy away from stating hard facts and revealing truths that many do not wish to speak 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 do not speak for themselves, they are often ignored or overlooked for promotion. Often there are biases that management is not even aware of when 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 progress is not as important to her as her family life. These myths must be discarded. While women have long spoken about the need to break the glass ceiling, Vasudha reveals that for women of color, it is a concrete ceiling. However, the most pressing problem is not a roof, but a broken rung on the advancement ladder. She offers solutions on how to repair the ladder.

Vasudha stresses that while many men are open to helping women move forward, they do not always realize the false biases and prejudices that can cloud judgment and make them unfair to their female colleagues. They can also make sexist assumptions. For example, homicide often occurs in the workplace, where a man feels that he must speak contemptuously to a woman in order to explain something to her. Because our society has come to believe that women must be defended, discrimination against women has become more subtle and results in micro-aggressive behaviors, such as homicides, that are often invisible.

Vasudha brings all of these issues to light while accepting men as allies and providing clear processes on how they can help women move forward. One of my favorite passages in the book focuses on Vasudha’s role as the mother of two children:

“People often ask me, as I am the mother of two boys, why I am still an advocate for women. Would I not do this to secondary men? I always have the same answer; I am responsible for my sisterhood, which faces to the same challenges as me because of 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 when I was waiting for my children to come into the world, I envisioned for my children: compassion, good citizenship, excellent college education, successful careers, and achieving whatever they strived for in their lives. Also, I wanted them to be feminists like their father. “.

Vasudha’s meticulous research and thoughtful storylines will open the eyes of both male and female readers. I believe that all managers and HR professionals 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 reveals “why you should speak.” Vasudha has spoken with this book and hopefully his message will spread. As she says near the end:

“I don’t think change can happen one person or couple at a time. The currents of culture carry the wave of change. To create those currents, we have to scramble the stories and bring them to the surface. That is why I am sharing Mine. Also, 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, I learned more by sharing them. “