The cover title of the Anjali Hazarika walk the talk speaks loud about what the pages of the book carry. The author excellently makes a case of moving from gender diversity to gender neutrality and then to gender equality by removing discrimination by erasing unconscious biases settled in our back of the mind against the women perceiving and treating them as second class in this male dominated society and breaking taboos, that create breakers in the growth of women in social, political and business/corporate arena. The old age discrimination with deep rooted systemic patterns cannot vanish overnight and require deeper dialogues with all stakeholders of the society.
There is no denying fact that we don’t mean and intend to follow what we talk about women at workplace. Be it PSUs, banks and private sectors, women are struggling to make their own way to prove their mettle. Anjali in this book talks truth about existence of gender bias and need to fight it because it is knowingly keeping women psychologically weak and economically insecure. The book has ideas and agenda for action to shed invisible barriers and create an ecosystem of women empowerment. The book gains much importance and relevance at the time when women bankers of the country’s public sector and private sector banks are speaking loudly about the ill treatment, discrimination, humiliation and inhuman behaviour they get at workplace from their male bosses thus creating a hostile work environment and making their life stressful.
Anjali in her book talks about the tyranny of invisible barriers, reality of “cream” being pushed to top, networks as catalysts for change, shackles of stereotypes and need for developing the ecosystem of women empowerment. The language of the book keeps reader engaged because it talks all that which you know, see and feels at workplace but neither accept the reality nor want to sit, think and do something positive to provide equality to women with respect. The small stories, examples and data used by the author in the book to impress upon various points provide weight and relevance. The book provides insights and strategies to help women in their career progression. A good read for all men and women managers.