My ongoing learning about gender bias

Dear Friends,

As Living in Flow makes its way into the world, I want to bring your attention to something I feel regretful about.

In the gathering of testimonials for the book, I turned to many professionals whom I respect and admire, both female and male, to support my work with positive words. I am so grateful for their contributions.

Yet a respected colleague and close friend brought to my attention this week that all the blurbs selected for the print edition of the book are from men. I was surprised and saddened to realize this was true.

Living in Flow is about empowerment of the human spirit. Yet, while I do have a section in the book about the #MeToo movement, and a separate section about my gradual awakening to my experience of white privilege, it is in actions rather than words where the greatest impact is felt. Through the publishing process, we missed the fact that the blurbs selected for the paperback were entirely male. It doesn't align with our values, yet that’s how it happened.

As the colleague who pointed this out to me said, it is precisely those that can afford to ignore bias who need to learn to see it. I apologize for my oversight. I have work to do in understanding these issues.

North Atlantic Books and I are working to update the testimonials listed through the online sales portals, such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble, to have a gender representative mix of my critiquers. I will update you on that as it unfolds. Again, I am grateful to all of those who wrote blurbs for the book, for lending their time, their expertise, and their public image to support my work. This has been a learning experience for me.