Breaking Through Bias Second Edition: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work

Fully Revised Second Edition

Since Breaking Through Bias was published in 2016, the #MeToo movement has exposed just how pervasive sexual harassment is in the workplace; the increase in public misogynistic comments has made clear that explicit gender bias is not a thing of the past; and stay-at-home orders and school closings due to Covid-19 have brought into even sharper focus the discriminatory impact of the unequal division of child care and household responsibilities between most couples.

In this Second Edition of Breaking Through Bias, the authors, Kramer and Harris, explain how these recent developments fit into a larger pattern of implicit or unconscious gender bias that imposes serious obstacles to women's career advancement. They argue persuasively, however, that while this bias is the result of deeply rooted gender stereotypes, women can avoid or overcome its discriminatory consequences by the effective use of "attuned gender communication" to manage the impressions other people have of them.

Kramer and Harris illustrate the use of attuned gender communication in each of the contexts in which gender bias manifests itself: negative bias (women are not as talented as men), benevolent bias (women need men's support), age bias (older women are not effective workers), motherhood bias (women with children are not committed to their careers), and self-limiting bias (women believing themselves not suited for particular roles).

Drawing on decades of experience supervising, training, evaluating, mentoring, and sponsoring thousands of women as well as exhaustive social science research, Kramer and Harris present in this updated and fully revised Second Edition unique, practical, and highly effective advice women can use to break through bias and achieve the career success they desire and deserve.

Gender bias experts Andie Kramer and Al Harris have been combatting gender bias through writing, speaking, and mentoring for over 30 years.

Andie and Al are the co-authors of two award-winning books: Breaking Through Bias Second Edition, and It's Not You, It's the Workplace: Women's Conflict at Work and the Bias That Built It.

Andie and Al's writing on communication strategies and gender biases has been widely featured, including in HBR.org, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, and The Chicago Tribune. Andie is also a contributing writer for Forbes.com.


Together and separately, Andie and Al speak and lead workshops across the country to help women, men, and organizations overcome the negative effects of gender bias and build healthier, more productive workplaces.


Andie is a partner at an international law firm. Alongside her demanding legal career, she has become a nationally known advocate for women's advancement. Because mentorship opportunities for young executive and professional women are often limited, she co-founded the Women's Leadership and Mentoring Alliance (WLMA) and has developed numerous women-specific leadership training programs. Andie is the recipient of a long list of accolades and awards for both achievements in her legal career and her advocacy of women. Among her accolades is being named on National Law Review's 50 most influential women lawyers in America for her "demonstrated power to change the legal landscape, shape public affairs, launch industries, and do big things."

Al was a founding partner of the Chicago law firm of Ungaretti & Harris, which in 2015 merged into a large national law firm. At Ungaretti & Harris, Al served for many years as managing partner and then as a member of its Executive and Compensation Committees. In these roles, he had extensive experience watching and evaluating women as they moved up the career ladder. Along the way, Al developed a growing sensitivity to the barriers and biases women face in traditionally male career environments and began mentoring women in many career fields as well as researching and writing extensively on the subject of stereotypes and biases with a specialization in gender biases.