PODCAST · business
Women at Work
by Harvard Business Review
Women face gender discrimination throughout our careers. It doesn't have to derail our ambitions — but how do we prepare to deal with it? There's no workplace orientation session about narrowing the wage gap, standing up to interrupting male colleagues, or taking on many other issues we encounter at work. So HBR staffers Amy Bernstein, Amy Gallo, and Emily Caulfield are untangling some of the knottiest problems. They interview experts on gender, tell stories about their own experiences, and give lots of practical advice to help you succeed in spite of the obstacles.
Episodes
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That’s Our Show
This episode marks the end of a show that’s meant so much to us. Amy Bernstein and Amy Gallo say goodbye, answer two last Ask the Amys questions, and reminisce with founding producer Amanda Kersey. HBR’s Maureen Hoch, who came up with the original idea for the podcast, joins to share how it all...
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Ask the Amys: Sabotaging Bosses, Irritating Employees, and More
What if your boss turns against you the minute you ask for a promotion? Or you struggle with strategic thinking and keep getting feedback that you’re “too in the weeds”? Or the person dragging down your team is doing just enough to stay out of trouble? The Amys give advice for dealing with...
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Let Go of the Beliefs That Limit How You Lead
Many of us have internal beliefs—I need it done now, I know I’m right, I need to be involved—that feel like truth but actually hold us back as leaders. Executive coach Muriel Wilkins calls these counterproductive beliefs “hidden blockers,” and she talks the Amys through the process of identifying...
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Managing Up, One Conversation at a Time
Have you ever realized, mid-project, that you and your boss weren’t aligned on what success looked like or how to get there? Executive coach Melody Wilding explains why getting clear on goals and understanding each other’s working styles is essential, even when you’re already in a leadership…
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What We Can Learn from Taylor Swift
When our colleague Kevin Evers wrote There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift, we knew we had to talk about it. For so many women, she’s a role model—personally and professionally. Four HBR Swifties who read the book highlight how her instincts and decisions offer lessons…
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What to Share, What to Hold Back
Self-disclosure at work can build trust and connection, but it also comes with risks. In one of our earliest episodes, the late Columbia professor Katherine Phillips explained how sharing personal experiences helps diverse teams connect. We revisit that 2018 conversation and talk with her…
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The Difference You Can Make in a Recent Grad’s Career
Young women are entering the workforce full of potential but without some of the interpersonal skills they need to succeed and advance. That’s not just their problem; it’s ours too. In this live conversation from SXSW EDU, Amy Gallo talks with Neda Norouzi, an architecture professor at the...
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Ask the Amys: Favoritism, Unsupportive Managers, and More
Imagine having a direct report who sobs every time you give them feedback. Or leading a team of people who’ve told your boss they don’t trust you. Or managing people for the first time—43 of them—with no training or guidance. The Amys offer advice for getting through these real situations from...
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The Essentials: Asking Purposeful Questions
Purposeful questions do more than clarify details—they reveal how you think and demonstrate leadership potential. Amy Gallo talks with a program manager looking to strengthen her executive presence and question-asking skills. Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks joins them to…
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Getting Along with an Insecure Tormentor
What do you do when a formerly supportive boss turns against you? Amy G advises a project manager who still believes in her team, just not the person leading it. Learn tactics for managing up, protecting your reputation, and preserving your sanity.
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Starting March 10, More Amys, More Often!
After 10 seasons, Women at Work is changing things up for the better. We’re shifting to a new, year-round schedule, releasing a new episode every other Monday, starting March 10. That means more episodes that inspire reflection and growth, more practical advice, and more insights and stories that...
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We’re Asking for (and Getting) What We Want
What could you achieve if you asked for what you truly want at work? Amy Gallo and four listeners embraced Alison Fragale’s “nos challenge,” requesting everything from clearer communication and help with a project to leadership opportunities and job title changes. As they pursued 10 rejections...
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How to Leap Mid-Career from One Industry to Another
When you realize the line of work you’ve been in for years doesn’t interest you anymore or is in decline or won’t ever pay well enough, what’s your next move? Amy B speaks with executive coach Nina Bowman about the process of making a bold mid-career leap: how to identify a new path, build...
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Consumed by Caregiving
A past guest recounts how she burned out, quit her job, intended to get a new job after taking a breather, and then didn’t for over a year. That’s because someone in her family kept getting sick or hurt, she had to move twice, and all of the logistical and emotional responsibilities fell to her...
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Working While Parenting a Teen: Not What I Expected
Do you expect to have more time for yourself and for your career as your kids become teens and young adults? Amy G did. If you too are getting “urgent” texts from your teenager at all hours, feeling judged by other parents about your level of involvement, and trying to figure out how to set the...
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Chats, Bots, and Prompts: Make GenAI Work for You
There’s something about hearing how other women are making the most of LLMs that can turn even the most GenAI-avoidant among us GenAI-curious. At least that’s what happened to the Amys when they heard from several power users who’ve broadened their thinking, deepened their agency at work, and…
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When Anxiety Interferes with Work
Worrying is a fact of life; it comes and goes, usually. A clinical psychologist explains how to better manage anxiety at work, whether you have an anxiety disorder, suspect you might, or want to support a colleague who does.
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To Get What You Want, Be Both Assertive and Warm
When you’re interacting with people at work, how often do you find yourself deflecting praise, downplaying your accomplishments, or responding “busy!” when someone asks how you’re doing? Why are those such common habits, especially if they so often leave us feeling fake? Alison Fragale, a…
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What a Woman in the White House Could Mean for Us
Political scientist Farida Jalalzai and organizational psychologist Laura Morgan Roberts unpack the symbolic and practical effects of having a woman in a top leadership position. They explore how Kamala Harris’s potential presidency could challenge and shift our notions of leadership and change…
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Season 10 of Women at Work Starts October 21
How are women using GenAI to transform their work? What can we learn from the listeners who identify as “AI power users” about how to boost our productivity, creativity, and confidence? Why is working while parenting a teenager so much harder than Amy Gallo expected, and how can she and other…
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Ground Your DEI Efforts in Data
How do you know how diverse your company’s workforce is, how equitable its processes are, and how included people feel if nobody is using any metrics? DEI strategist Lily Zheng explains the power of data to track a company’s progress, fix unfairness, and hold people to their promises. They have...
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How to Manage: Rising from Middle to Senior Management
Is mid-level management a stone you’re ready to step off of? Making that move is difficult but doable, and Amy B and her three guests will direct, inspire, and reassure you. An executive coach validates the challenges of scoring a position that’s scarce. Then, two COOs whose careers stagnated in...
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How to Manage: Selling Your Ideas to Leadership
As a mid-level manager, when you spot an opportunity for the business to adopt a new technology, enter a different market, or improve a process, how should you approach the people above you so that they listen to your idea and act on it? Executives have a reputation for dismissing suggestions…
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How to Manage: Executing Strategy
Strategist Andrea Belk Olson spells out how to make the most of the latest corporate master plan that’s now your job to put into action. She suggests important questions to ask yourself before hitting the ground running, ways to handle resistance from team members, what to do when the plan isn’t...
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How to Manage: Getting Out of the Weeds
What’s the happy middle between micromanaging and being too hands off? Amy B and three other experienced mid-level managers describe how they think about when to intervene and when not to so that they are empowering their teams and freeing up their own minds to do more of their most strategic work.
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Attend Women at Work Live May 16
Register for a lively four hours with the Amys, their guest experts, and fellow fans of the show. Dorie Clark will talk about working with the ambition you’ve got right now; Ruchi Sinha building teams’ trust in you as a leader and in one another; and Lily Zheng, on where we are now with DEI and...
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The Essentials: Handling Fierce Criticism
If you’re in a leadership role, or any role where you are outspoken and visible, chances are that at some point people are going to criticize you, sometimes fiercely, sometimes publicly. Are you ready for that? Two women who’ve felt the heat because of decisions they’ve made or arguments they’ve...
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The Essentials: Setting and Maintaining Boundaries
We all need to set boundaries, even in the most structured jobs, because work has its way of encroaching on the rest of our life. Ashley, a senior analyst for the federal government, recently shifted to a schedule that helps her do her most important work and have some alone time before her…
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The Essentials: Building and Repairing Trust
Trust smooths the way for collaboration, conflict resolution, and influencing. But how do you build this asset? And how do you repair it when you’ve missed a series of important deadlines or otherwise messed up? Organizational psychologist Ruchi Sinha talks with a listener who’s struggling to...
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The Essentials: Executive Presence
Executive presence is a mix of gravitas, communication skills, and appearance. But what does that look and sound like in practice? To help a fully remote insurance underwriter think through ways she can act like a leader, we bring in a role model of hers and an expert in strategic communication.
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Sexism Is Everywhere
Is there any way to know for sure whether something that someone did—or neglected to do—is rooted in sexism? When is confronting that person worth it? And if you’ll never know what drove their actions, how do you make peace with the uncertainty? Amy G talks through these questions with two...
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Is Entrepreneurship Right for Me? (from New Here)
It’s a question that so many of us are grappling with. Should I quit corporate life and pursue my passion project? Today in this episode from our colleagues at New Here—HBR's podcast for young professionals—we’ll help you think through the possibilities and trade-offs, as we learn from one…
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Ever Consider Joining a Board?
Eight women who’ve been on boards share how they landed a seat, gained confidence in the role, and found unexpected personal and professional benefits in the work. We hope their perspectives and advice will encourage you to consider trying it yourself some day. Ellen Zane, who runs a Harvard...
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Ask the Amys
What if one of your first assignments at a new job was to fire people? What should you do if the person leading a project you’re on isn’t giving clear direction, demands that you work nights and weekends, bristles at your feedback—and leadership tells you to fall in line? These are two of the…
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So Many Feelings. Too Many?
Liz Fosslien believes “the future of work is emotional.” The Amys revisit our 2020 conversation with her and fellow organizational consultant Mollie West Duffy about the good that can come from being vulnerable with colleagues, and Fosslien returns to reassess where the line between vulnerability...
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Should I Change My Last Name?
If you plan to get married, do you see yourself keeping or changing your last name? How much, if at all, does your career factor into that decision? Our associate producer, who’s engaged, spoke with three recently married women about the professional considerations that factored into their...
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ADHD Is Different for Women
Two women who have ADHD—one’s a psychologist and the other a life coach—describe what the disorder is and how it messes with the brain’s executive functions, like inhibition and emotional regulation. They give advice for managing the symptoms, asking for help at work, and what to do if what we’re...
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Navigating Your Career When You Have a Disability
Meredith Koch and Nicole Bettè are engineers who’ve bonded over conversations about their apparent and non-apparent disabilities. They recount how at different moments in their careers they’ve gotten the understanding and assistive technology necessary to do their jobs—and when they haven’t, all...
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Let’s Talk About Our Failures
The Amys and their former co-host Sarah Green Carmichael revisit times they majorly messed up, in hopes that you’ll feel better about your experiences with failure. We’re not talking about honest mistakes with simple solutions; we’re talking about larger problems that were difficult and costly to...
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October 16, the Amys Are Back
In this ninth season of the show, these are some of the big questions they’ll explore: How do you recover from a failure? What’s it really like to serve on a board? Do our careers influence the decision to keep or change our last name? How does going through a divorce affect us at work? If we…
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Women Who Are Making Work Better for Women
When you see potential for your company to improve in some way—whether it’s to overhaul an outdated policy, round out benefits, or to make jobs more workable, how can you instigate change? Three women who saw that potential and carried it through describe what they did at their companies, the...
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Communicating Effectively When You’re Running on Empty
Leadership development coach Muriel Wilkins talks us through communication techniques that meet you where you’re at mentally and emotionally so that you can rise to the moment (even when you’re worried you can’t).
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How to Manage: Finding Yourself Again
Who are you now, who do you want to be, and how can you stretch without taking on too much? Jen Dary regularly coaches first-time managers on these questions. She shares advice for finding yourself anew at work, dealing with disillusionment, and setting priorities and boundaries. Then, a former...
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How to Manage: Negotiating for Your Team
When you manage people, they ask you for things: to extend a deadline, to make an exception, to give them a raise or more resources. Maybe they don’t even have to ask; you notice the need and start thinking about how to meet it. Negotiations professor Martha Jeong explains the mindset, framing,...
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How to Manage: Conflict
People management consists of a fair amount of mediation and diplomacy, and you can’t expect to get the hang of it right away. You’re in the middle of a lot now, and holding tension and resolving disagreements takes planning, practice, and restraint. Amy G teaches us about different types of...
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How to Manage: Being Taken Seriously
If you’re a woman who’s a new manager, people will probably push back on your authority. As difficult as defiance is to face—especially when you’re settling in yourself—we have ideas for making it clear that you’re in charge. McKinsey’s Lareina Yee recounts the actions that senior leaders took…
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Coming in June: How to Manage
Are you a new manager? You may have some—er, a lot—of questions. How do you gain your employees’ trust and respect? How should you handle the inevitable conflicts that come up? And how much power do you actually have, and how do you use it for good? In this special series, we’ll address these...
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The Essentials: Making Sound Decisions
A dentist joins Amy Gallo to ask a behavioral scientist about the fundamentals of sound decision making: when to use a process, how to handle resistance to a call you’ve made, and making peace with a tough call.
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The Essentials: Getting the Feedback You Need
We need actionable, useful feedback to grow and advance professionally. But our guest, an aerospace engineer, hasn’t received any of that for years, and she feels like she’s missing out on information that would clarify her standing at her company and secure her future success there. We bring in...
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The Essentials: Managing Projects
What’s a project charter? Why does this one person keep trying to derail our progress? Are our planning meetings effective? How do I actually get people to follow through? Figuring out how to successfully manage a project can make any professional’s head spin. One woman, new to this type of work,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Women face gender discrimination throughout our careers. It doesn't have to derail our ambitions — but how do we prepare to deal with it? There's no workplace orientation session about narrowing the wage gap, standing up to interrupting male colleagues, or taking on many other issues we encounter at work. So HBR staffers Amy Bernstein, Amy Gallo, and Emily Caulfield are untangling some of the knottiest problems. They interview experts on gender, tell stories about their own experiences, and give lots of practical advice to help you succeed in spite of the obstacles.
HOSTED BY
Harvard Business Review
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Women at Work have?
Women at Work currently has 163 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Women at Work about?
Women face gender discrimination throughout our careers. It doesn't have to derail our ambitions — but how do we prepare to deal with it? There's no workplace orientation session about narrowing the wage gap, standing up to interrupting male colleagues, or taking on many other issues we encounter...
How often does Women at Work release new episodes?
Women at Work publishes regularly with 163 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Women at Work?
You can listen to Women at Work on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Women at Work?
Women at Work is created and hosted by Harvard Business Review.
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