Michelle King (journalist)

For the television writer, see Michelle King.

For the educator, see Michelle King (educator).

Michelle King
Born	Michelle Penelope King
Education	Cranfield School of Management (PhD) Massey University (MA) Auckland University of Technology (diploma) Australian Graduate School of Management (MBA)
Occupation	Managing Director & Founder of The Culture Practice
Employer	The Culture Practice
Known for	women rights advocacy through UN Women’s Integrated Strategy for Gender Innovation & Global Innovation Coalition and publications about gender equality
Website	Michelle Penelope King

Michelle Penelope King is a white South African born journalist, writer, women's rights activist and advocate for gender equality.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Since December 2019, King has been director of inclusion at Netflix, a department responsible for inclusion and diversity among corporate employees.^[6][7][8]

Biography

King attended Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand and graduated with a M.A degree in psychology in 2005.^[9] In 2008, King completed a post-graduate diploma in journalism from Auckland University of Technology (AUT).^[10][11] King continued her study at Australian Graduate School of Management where she earned her master's degree in business administration in 2013, and then her PhD in the field of organization and gender at Cranfield School of Management in 2023.^[12]

King began her journalism career reading the news for George FM and freelance writing for the Independent Financial Review. She then pursued her work as a reporter for Breakfast Business and also worked as a television reporter for New Zealand's national news program and Radio New Zealand.^[12][13] She has written for TIME, Huffington Post,^[14] Forbes,^[15] Bloomberg L.P.,^[3][16] and Harvard Business Review^[17] on topics related to gender and the advancement of women in organizations.^[18][19]

King also took several positions in human resources and gender equality and worked for the United Nations at UN Women in the area of communications, diversity and inclusion.^[20][21][22] In 2019 Women Tech Founders, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to advancing women in the tech industry, awarded King with the 2019 Inspiring Innovator Award, for her outstanding achievements in the sector.^[23]

During her PhD research, King conducted numerous interviews with the CEOs and corporate executives. They explained that the corporations expect their ideal employees to work long hours, be extrovert and not to have any social or family responsibilities. She learnt that most of the corporation work conditions match "masculine, aggressive" types of employees and are more suitable for white heterosexual men than for women or minorities. As a result, she launched "the Fix", a radio podcast illuminating gender inequality in corporate business culture and also explaining how to overcome different obstacles at work.^[24] Later, she wrote a book, The Fix Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work, on the same subject.^{[25][5][26][16]} The book won Axiom Business Book Silver Award in the category "Women/Minorities in Business".^[27]

King is a member of the advisory board of Girl Up, a Washington D.C.-based foundation established by the United Nations.^[28]

Book

• King, M. P. (2023). How Work Works: The Subtle Science of Getting Ahead Without Losing Yourself HarperBus
• King, M. P. (2020). The fix: Overcome the invisible barriers that are holding women back at work. S.l.: Simon & Schuster.^[29]

Selected publications

• Thriving in a Male-Dominated Workplace, Harvard Business Review, Dec 27, 2022
• Women are better leaders. The pandemic proves it., CNN Business, May 5, 2020^[30]
• Julia Gillard, Australia’s First Female Prime Minister On Leadership, Education And The Misogyny Speech, Forbes, September 17, 2019^[31]
• Women Hit A Glass Ceiling Early In Their Careers, Here's How To Break It, Forbes, Dec 5, 2018^[32]
• Is Office Politics a White Man’s Game? by Michelle King, David Denyer and Emma Parry, Harvard Business Review, September 12, 2018^[33]
• We need to stop fixing women and start fixing workplaces by Michelle King, Evoke.org, October 10, 2019^[34]
• Building a Better Workplace: Business Books 2019-2020 by Daniel Lefferts, Publishers Weekly, November 22, 2019^[35]
• #MeToo’s Legacy by Nicole Torres, Harvard Business Review, January-February 2020^[36]
• HBR Podcast: Gender Equality Issues by Daniel Lefferts, Harvard Business Review: Dear HBR Podcast - Episode 51, December 26, 2019^[37]
• IHRSA: Club Business International by Craig R. Waters, February 2020^[38]
• Axiom Business Book Awards - 2020 Axiom Business Book Awards - 2020^[39]
• Like them or not, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar represent the future of leadership by Michelle King, Salon.com, February 21, 2020^[40]

References

1. Inc: Why leaders should focus on fixing their companies before asking women to make changes
2. Harvard Business Review: #MeToo’s Legacy
3. Bloomberg: Know the barriers women and minorities face at work, says Inclusion expert
4. Yahoo Finance: Know the Barriers Women and Minorities Face at Work, Says Inclusion Expert
5. C-Span: After Words with Michelle King
6. Fortune: Leaders need to ‘disrupt their denial’ to get diversity and inclusion right
7. Economist: Women still face barriers in the workplace
8. Politics and Prose: The Fix: Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work
9. King, Michelle (2005). Is emotional intelligence a mediator or moderator of the stress process? (Masters thesis). Massey Research Online, Massey University. hdl:10179/10098.
10. Insight AUT: Alumni and Friends 2020
11. "Breaking invisible gender barriers through storytelling - Insight Magazine - AUT". insight.aut.ac.nz. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
12. TV New Zealand: Michelle King
13. King's Linkedin Profile
14. Huffpost: Michelle King
15. Forbes for Women: Michelle King
16. "Netflix Director of Inclusion Says Women Should Realize How Incredible They Are". Bloomberg News. 16 March 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-06-21.
17. HBR Podcast: How Workplaces — Not Women — Need to Change to Improve Equality
18. Nooklyn: TedX Bushwick Women
19. Scoop: Looking Back: What Did The Dalai Lama Leave Us?
20. Fortune: Leaders need to ‘disrupt their denial’ to get diversity and inclusion right
21. Cheddar: Invisible Barriers Women Face at Work
22. Business Insider: Gender expert — and director of inclusion at Netflix — says office politics work only for men. To fix things, let's all start 'spending our privilege' in smarter ways
23. Cranfield School of Management
24. Apple Podcast Preview: The Fix with Michelle King
25. Union Journal City News: Not getting ahead at work? It’s not YOU – It’s men!
26. Ideas. Ted.com: One invisible barrier holding back women at work: the conformity bind
27. Axiom Business Book Awards: AXIOM BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2020 RESULTS
28. Girl Up: Meet our squad
29. King, Michelle P (2020). The fix: overcome the invisible barriers that are holding women back at work. S.l.: SIMON & SCHUSTER LTD. ISBN 978-1-4711-9304-0. OCLC 1152861634.
30. "Women are better leaders. The pandemic proves it". CNN. 5 May 2020.
31. Forbes: Julia Gillard, Australia’s First Female Prime Minister On Leadership, Education And The Misogyny Speech (September 17, 2019)
32. Forbes: Women Hit A Glass Ceiling Early In Their Careers, Here's How To Break It (Dec 5, 2018)
33. HBR: Is Office Politics a White Man’s Game?
34. We need to stop fixing women and start fixing workplaces
35. Building a Better Workplace: Business Books 2019-2020
36. #MeToo’s Legacy
37. HBR Podcast: Gender Equality Issues
38. IHRSA: Club Business International
39. Axiom Business Book Awards - 2020
40. Like them or not, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar represent the future of leadership