A $700 Billion Missed Opportunity

Sophie Bierly

Over the past 10 years, achieving gender balance in financial services has remained a challenge across Europe and worldwide, with the industry still male-dominated, particularly at the senior level. While there are now more women in senior leadership roles globally than ever before, progress has been incremental, and there is still a long way to go — something made clear by Oliver Wyman’s new Women in Financial Services Report 2020. Increasingly, this lack of gender balance is to the industry’s commercial detriment.

8 Steps for Retaining Women of Color Lawyers

Sophie Bierly

2Civility FEBRUARY 25, 2021 JAYNE REARDON  A lack of diversity and inclusion has plagued the legal profession for decades. Despite incremental progress in hiring, law firms haven’t been successful in retaining women of color lawyers in the associate ranks or promoting them to partner. While the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the stark realities of the legal profession’s diversity, equity, and …

Discrimination against Mothers is the Strongest Form of Workplace Gender Discrimination: Lessons from US Caregiver Discrimination Law

Sophie Bierly

Work-family reconciliation is an integral part of labor law as the result of two major demographic changes: the rise of the two-earner family, and the pressing concern of elder care as Baby Boomers age. Despite these changes, most European and American workplaces still assume that the committed worker has a family life secured so that family responsibilities do not distract from work obligations. This way of organizing employment around a breadwinner husband and a caregiver housewife, which arose in the late eighteenth century, is severely outdated today. The result is workplace-workforce mismatch: Many employers still have workplaces perfectly designed for the workforce of 1960. Labour lawyers in Europe and the United States have developed different legal strategies to reduce the work-family conflicts that arise from this mismatch. The Europeans’ focus is on public policy, based on a European political tradition of communal social supports — a tradition the United States lacks. Advocates in the United States, faced with the most family-hostile public policy in the developed world, have developed legal remedies based on the American political tradition of individualism, using anti-discrimination law to eliminate employment discrimination against mothers and other adults with caregiving responsibilities. This article explores both the social science documenting that motherhood is the strongest trigger for gender bias in the workplace and the American cases addressing “family responsibilities discrimination.”

From Mastery to Accountability: Cultural Humility as an Alternative to Cultural Competence

Sophie Bierly

Cultural competency has been a long held ideal for social work educators and practitioners. However, definitions and approaches to cultural competency vary widely depending on worldview, discipline, and practice context. Within social work and beyond, cultural competency has been challenged for its failure to account for the structural forces that shape individuals’ experiences and opportunities. In contrast, the concept ofcultural humility takes into account the fluidity of culture and challenges both individuals and institutions to address inequalities. This article takes a critical look at cultural competence as a concept, examining its explicit and implicit assumptions, and the impact these assumptions have on practitioners. It suggests that cultural humility may offer social work an alternative framework as it acknowledges power differentials between provider and client and challenges institutional-level barriers. The authors advocate a move from a focus on mastery in understanding ‘others’ to a framework that requires personal accountability in challenging institutional barriers that impact marginalized communities. Cultural humility, while a promising concept, has not been fully explored in social work. Therefore, the authors present a conceptual model of cultural competency along with strategic questions for providers and organizations to integrate into social work practice and education.

Better Together: A Model for Women and LGBTQ Equality in the Workplace

Sophie Bierly

Much has been achieved in terms of human rights for women and people of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and queer (LGBTQ) community. However, human resources management (HRM) initiatives for gender equality in the workplace focus almost exclusively on white, heterosexual, cisgender women, leaving the problems of other gender, and social minorities out of the analysis. This article develops an integrative model of gender equality in the workplace for HRM academics and practitioners. First, it analyzes relevant antecedents and consequences of gender-based discrimination and harassment (GBDH) in the workplace. Second, it incorporates the feminist, queer, and intersectional perspectives in the analysis. Third, it integrates literature findings about women and the LGBTQ at work, making the case for an inclusive HRM. The authors underscore the importance of industry-university collaboration and offer a starters’ toolkit that includes suggestions for diagnosis, intervention, and applied research on GBDH. Finally, avenues for future research are identified to explore gendered practices that hinder the career development of women and the LGBTQ in the workplace.

Diversity and Inclusion are Core Leadership Competencies: A Primer for Busy Leaders

Sophie Bierly

Why does research clearly show that in the physician workforce, female doctors are not equitably valued, respected or compensated when compared to male peers? It is well documented that women physicians receive less pay for similar work.1 We lag in promotions and make up a small minority of high level leaders.2 We often lack support and sponsorship. My own research with colleagues has demonstrated that although medical specialty societies have attracted physician members from all walks of life (good diversity), many of them have zero women (no inclusion) among recipients of some recognition awards.3 Is it any wonder that women physicians may become demoralized and experience more symptoms of burnout than male colleagues?

Native Women Lead

Sophie Bierly

OUR MISSION To revolutionize systems and inspire innovation by investing in Native Women in business. We do this by co-creating with and convening our community to build coalition while honoring our culture, creativity, and connections

National Latina Business Women Association – San Diego

Sophie Bierly

The National Latina Business Women Association (NLBWA-SD) was established in 2004. It was created to meet the needs of the growing community of Latina Entrepreneurs, Executives and Professionals.

NLBWA-SD believes in “Investing in Latinas” and has developed business networking, membership programs & benefits for its members, including monthly meetings (mixers, breakfasts, seminars &luncheons) all held at a centrally located and unique venue with incredible speakers and panelists.