Not Made for You
How Women in Tech Can Challenge Bias, Claim Their Space, and Thrive in a System Built for Men
The revealing career guide Not Made for You arms women and minorities with the tools they need to combat workplace discrimination in the technology industry.
Global marketing executive Kae Kronthaler-Williams’s perceptive leadership guide Not Made for You is about navigating the male-dominated world of the technology sector as a woman.
Seeking to arm women and minorities in the technology industry with the tools they need to combat workplace discrimination, the book identifies common issues faced by those at the margins, including sexism, racism, and daily microaggressions. It includes research and cultural commentary in its examinations of the everyday biases that shape women’s careers, and it forwards strategies for responding to negative scenarios. Case studies and personal anecdotes further illuminate its points as it works toward a call to action, encouraging people to speak out against discrimination and bias in the workplace.
The book’s examples include instances of systemic ageism in a well-known computer company and Ellen Pao’s 2012 gender discrimination lawsuit against a Silicon Valley firm; the latter is credited with leading to a spike in sex discrimination complaints across California. Kronthaler-Williams also zooms in to report on a colleague’s repeated use of a racial slur. Throughout, the book blends narrative with exposition to convey its points, insisting that “You are the CEO of your own career” to balance its hard revelations.
When it moves from defining discrimination and sharing examples to providing strategies for combating discrimination, the book’s guidance becomes actionable. On the topic of salary negotiation, for instance, it recommends methods like declining to share one’s previous salary in order to halt a perpetuation of the gender pay gap. Likewise, in the chapter on handling sexual harassment, thorough, step-by-step advice for documenting incidents and asserting boundaries is forwarded.
However, other suggestions are too brief and vague, as with suggestions to keep a clear head, refuse to take notes, and build a good rapport with men in leadership roles, for example. On the latter point, the book recommends relationship building through “showing support … being empathetic … and being a trustworthy ally.”
At times, the book feels a somewhat dated. For example, It delves into the #MeToo movement and discusses corporate America’s response to the death of George Floyd, during which time many companies scrambled to adopt new DEI policies and affirm their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet the book fails to engage with the dismantling of such initiatives under the second Trump administration and the recent scrutiny of gender and identity studies.
Still, Not Made for You is an illuminating and pragmatic career guide that’s designed to help women thrive in the often-unwelcoming technology industry.
Reviewed by
Hannah Pearson
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
