Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy

A stirring, comprehensive look at the state of women in the workforce--why women’s progress has stalled, how our economy fosters unproductive competition, and how we can fix the system that holds women back.

In an era of supposed equality, women are falling behind in the workplace faster than before, a trend exacerbated by Covid-19. Even with more women in the workforce than in decades past, wage gaps continue to increase. It is the most educated women who have fallen the furthest from behind. Blue-collar women hold the most insecure and badly paid jobs in our economy. And even as we celebrate high-profile representation--women on the board of Fortune 500 companies and our first female vice president--women have limited recourse when they experience harassment and discrimination.

Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy explains that the system that governs our economy--a winner-take-all economy--is the root cause of these myriad problems. The WTA self-selects aggressive, cutthroat business tactics, which creates a feedback loop that sidelines women. The authors, three legal scholars, call this feedback loop ＂the triple bind＂ if women don’t compete on the same terms as men, they lose; if women do compete on the same terms as men, they’re punished more harshly for their sharp elbows or actual misdeeds; and when women see that they can’t win on the same terms as men, they take themselves out of the game (as if they haven’t been pushed out already). With odds like these stacked against them, it’s no wonder women feel like, no matter how hard they work, they can’t get ahead.

Drawing on rich storytelling often found in legal documents, Fair Shake makes a compelling case for why existing laws fail to protect women. It not only diagnoses the problem of what’s wrong with the modern economy, but shows how, with awareness and collective action, we can build a truly just economy for all.

Naomi Cahn is the Justice Anthony M. Kennedy distinguished professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law, as well as the codirector of the Family Law Center. Cahn is the author or editor of numerous books written for both academic and trade publishers, including Red Families v. Blue Families and Homeward Bound. In 2017, Cahn received the Harry Krause Lifetime Achievement in Family Law Award from the University of Illinois College of Law and in 2024 she was inducted into the Clayton Alumni Hall of Fame.

June Carbone is the Robina chair of law, science, and technology at the University of Minnesota Law School. Previously she has served as the Edward A. Smith/Missouri chair of law, the constitution, and society at the University of Missouri at Kansas City; and as the associate dean for professional development and presidential professor of ethics and the common good at Santa Clara University School of Law. She has written From Partners to Parents and cowritten Red Families v. Blue Families;Marriage Markets; and Family Law. She is a coeditor of the International Survey of Family Law.

Nancy Levit is the associate dean for faculty and holds a curator’s professorship at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Professor Levit has been voted Outstanding Professor of the Year five times by students and was profiled in Dean Michael Hunter Schwartz’s book, What the Best Law Teachers Do. She has received the N.T. Veatch Award for distinguished research and creative activity and the Missouri Governor’s Award for teaching excellence. She is the author of The Gender Line and coauthor of Feminist Legal Theory; The Happy Lawyer; The Good Lawyer; and Jurisprudence--Classical and Contemporary.