Gender Intelligence : Breakthrough Strategies for Increasing Diversity and Improving Your Bottom Line

World-renowned experts on gender intelligence Barbara Annis and Keith Merron suggest it’s time to move beyond arguments based on politics and fairness, building an economic business case for gender diversity in the workplace.

Despite forty years of laws, quotas, diversity training, and legal expenses aimed toward equalizing pay, opportunities, and working conditions between the sexes, the glass ceiling remains firmly intact. For too long, companies have played the “numbers game”―attempting to tackle gender imbalance by forcing affirmative action policies and numeric standards on organizations to increase the representation of women in management. Yet, these efforts have rarely been sustained.

In this groundbreaking comprehensive analysis, based on more than twenty-five years of in-depth surveys involving 100,000 men and women across dozens of Fortune 500 companies, Barbara Annis and Keith Merron provide a deeper understanding of the multiplicity of forces that have combined to create and perpetuate gender inequality. Gender Intelligence exposes common false assumptions that prevent men and women from successfully performing together at work―myths exacerbated by worn-out theories of gender blindness and sameness thinking. It show how a small but growing number of courageous, leading-edge companies have broken through the barriers to successfully advance women, making the remarkable transformation from compliance to choice―from pressure to preference―and show how it can be done in any business.

Gender Intelligence features 17 illustrations.

This evidence-based guide reveals the framework for a new kind of leadership:

• The Science of Gender Differences: Go beyond social theories to understand the hardwired, brain-based variations in how men and women communicate, solve problems, and make decisions.
• The Business Case for Diversity: Learn why quotas and “sameness thinking” fail and how Gender Intelligence creates a measurable economic advantage for Fortune 500 companies.
• Common Gender Blind Spots: Uncover the incorrect assumptions that cause miscommunication, stall careers, and prevent men and women from working together effectively.
• A New Framework for Leadership: Move from compliance to choice with actionable strategies for building an inclusive culture where both men and women can thrive.

Barbara Annis, founder and CEO of Barbara Annis & Associates Inc., is a world-renowned gender expert, advocating for Gender Intelligence in Fortune 500 companies and global organizations. She is the chair emeritus of the Women's Leadership Board at Harvard Kennedy School and the author of Same Words, Different Language; Leadership and the Sexes; and Work with Me, cowritten with John Gray.

Keith Merron, a senior associate with Barbara Annis & Associates, received his doctorate from Harvard University in human and organizational development. He is an organizational effectiveness and executive development specialist and the author of four other books on personal and organizational change, most recently, Inner Freedom: Living Authentically the Life You Were Truly Meant to Live.