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Black Box: A Pregnancy Discrimination Memoir
When Chelsey Glasson landed her dream job at Google, she was thrilled to join what she viewed as a progressive and inclusive organization. But from the moment she received her job offer, she began to experience instances of discrimination and harassment—eventually culminating in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit.
Friends, family, and even lawyers told Chelsey to move on, but she knew holding Google accountable was the path to proper healing. Although Google would spend significant resources to discredit and silence her, the truth eventually prevailed.
Black Box is a story of triumph over a tech giant, a cautionary tale of how misconduct against women and minorities persists in the workplace, and a rallying call to break down the many barriers to justice.
No one wins when discrimination and harassment are allowed to run rampant. For those who have suffered silently, Black Box offers a critical perspective to consider in choosing your own path forward.
Friends, family, and even lawyers told Chelsey to move on, but she knew holding Google accountable was the path to proper healing. Although Google would spend significant resources to discredit and silence her, the truth eventually prevailed.
Black Box is a story of triumph over a tech giant, a cautionary tale of how misconduct against women and minorities persists in the workplace, and a rallying call to break down the many barriers to justice.
No one wins when discrimination and harassment are allowed to run rampant. For those who have suffered silently, Black Box offers a critical perspective to consider in choosing your own path forward.
- GenresNonfiction
206 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 28, 2023
5 people are currently reading
1361 people want to read
About the author
Chelsey Glasson
1 book11 followersChelsey Glasson is a researcher and writer who spent the past two decades working in the public policy and tech sectors. After a memo she wrote about her experiences with pregnancy discrimination went viral at Google, Chelsey’s fight for justice was sponsored by the American Association of University Women and covered by media outlets such as NPR, Vice, the New York Times, the Cut, CNBC, Fox Business, Jezebel, and the Washington Post. A passionate activist, Chelsey has successfully lobbied for anti–pregnancy discrimination and workers' rights legislation, and she's also published op-eds in Fast Company, Fortune, and Business Insider. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 24, 2023
Disclosure: I'm know Chelsey (the author), I have a huge amount of respect for her, and I had a very successful experience working with her during (the non-Google) part of timeline covered by this book.
This is obviously a difficult story to read; the level of terrible things that happen is way worse than what I thought I knew and yet this is also a very compelling story to read. It's well told! I don't think we give good writing enough credit. We learn about Chelsey's life from (a difficult) childhood through education, career, marriage, parenthood. It serves to paint a picture of where she's coming from, her aspirations, etc. and that informs how she (and by implication most of us) reacts to the kinds of systemic BS she counters: pay and salary manipulation, tolerated if not outright sanctioned alcohol-fueled sexual harassment, and ultimately pregnancy discrimination and cover-ups.
This book is the antidote to every "I'd never stand for that if it happened to me" or "I'd speak up if I saw this happening to someone else" thought we all have; we are mostly passive against these systems; we are mostly powerless against these systems. The awfulness is overwhelming but it's not a story of hopeless, it's a story of being realistic - indeed, the book ends with a list of ideal changes that could make things better (just like a great UX researcher delivering their findings and recommendations).
Back to "good writing" - the storytelling is good. There's a cadence, a progression, characters we get to know and care about, and action. It's a *story* not a screed; there's plenty of opinions and it mostly serves to explain and contextualize what happens in the action. I *wanted* to keep reading (and for non-fiction, for me, that's pretty rare).
Reading this book even prompted my own reflections on my upbringing, what aspects might be considered traumatic, and how we all end up where we do because or in spite of what happens in our childhood; this book isn't about me but it is reflective and insightful enough about the author's experience that it provoked some personal insight.
We hear how bad things are like for many people (women, for sure, but not just women) in Big Tech, in corporate America; I'm a man and I'm self-employed, so it's actually outside my experience, so for me, reading this was a distressing but crystal clear expose of that experience. It's Chelsey's story but (as she makes devastatingly clear when she quotes dozens and dozens of women about their experiences in the epilogue) we know this is just incredibly common.
This is obviously a difficult story to read; the level of terrible things that happen is way worse than what I thought I knew and yet this is also a very compelling story to read. It's well told! I don't think we give good writing enough credit. We learn about Chelsey's life from (a difficult) childhood through education, career, marriage, parenthood. It serves to paint a picture of where she's coming from, her aspirations, etc. and that informs how she (and by implication most of us) reacts to the kinds of systemic BS she counters: pay and salary manipulation, tolerated if not outright sanctioned alcohol-fueled sexual harassment, and ultimately pregnancy discrimination and cover-ups.
This book is the antidote to every "I'd never stand for that if it happened to me" or "I'd speak up if I saw this happening to someone else" thought we all have; we are mostly passive against these systems; we are mostly powerless against these systems. The awfulness is overwhelming but it's not a story of hopeless, it's a story of being realistic - indeed, the book ends with a list of ideal changes that could make things better (just like a great UX researcher delivering their findings and recommendations).
Back to "good writing" - the storytelling is good. There's a cadence, a progression, characters we get to know and care about, and action. It's a *story* not a screed; there's plenty of opinions and it mostly serves to explain and contextualize what happens in the action. I *wanted* to keep reading (and for non-fiction, for me, that's pretty rare).
Reading this book even prompted my own reflections on my upbringing, what aspects might be considered traumatic, and how we all end up where we do because or in spite of what happens in our childhood; this book isn't about me but it is reflective and insightful enough about the author's experience that it provoked some personal insight.
We hear how bad things are like for many people (women, for sure, but not just women) in Big Tech, in corporate America; I'm a man and I'm self-employed, so it's actually outside my experience, so for me, reading this was a distressing but crystal clear expose of that experience. It's Chelsey's story but (as she makes devastatingly clear when she quotes dozens and dozens of women about their experiences in the epilogue) we know this is just incredibly common.
December 30, 2023
I won a kindle version of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. It was a short, quick read. I didn't feel overly connected to the author during her memoir. Lots of timelines and statements, but I just didn't feel like it went in to a lot of emotional depth. It definitely highlights a big and unfortunate problem in many workplaces. I had to use saved vacation time when I had my kids - and I was very fortunate to have enough to take a full 8 weeks - but that is a very short amount of time to recover and bond with a newborn. I was applying for promotions during that same time and it was hard!
January 11, 2024
I always appreciate receiving a Giveaway book that I would probably never have chosen to read. I do like memoirs but am way past the age of being interested in pregnancy books. However, I really enjoyed this book and the author's story. Getting a look inside Google's management structure was fascinating. The author did a fabulous job telling her story, making it very interesting, and easy to read. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in job discrimination stories.
May 31, 2024
Another read that I had to throw the towel in. At first it was good but I just lost interest in the continuing fight for what’s right.
February 11, 2025
If you've experienced pregnancy discrimination (or are interested in it) this was a wonderful account of what it can look like.
Many of the instances mimicked what I experienced.
Many of the instances mimicked what I experienced.
November 20, 2023
I won this book as part of a goodreads giveaway. I appreciate the telling of her experience and know that pregnancy/motherhood discrimination is a very real problem in many workplaces. But that being said, I don't feel like this addresses any inequalities of workplace treatment towards any other minority groups outside of being a pregnant female and/or mother. And in that sense I felt like the cover, the title, and the description of the book was misleading.
December 14, 2023
I rated this book 3/5 stars. I appreciate the issue that this memoir raised, and am glad that the author is able to share her story. I liked the section that connected childhood abuse to codependency and other (seemingly disparate) issues in adulthood. I think this book would have been much stronger if the epilogue contents were included throughout the course of the book. There's so much more than this one experience of pregnancy discrimination, there's intersections of various privileges that felt under-addressed in this memoir.
July 29, 2024
Black Box is a really important and disturbing account on a topic that I was not familiar with - pregnancy discrimination in tech. I commend Glasson's impactful and brave reporting. And I am disgusted by the appalling behavior of a company that has more money than God and aspires to do no harm. When I mentioned to my sister that I was reading this book she told me pregnancy discrimination was the reason she left her job at corporate Starbucks shortly after the birth of her daughter. After many years there, she was passed over for a well deserved promotion while on maternity leave. My niece is now 7 and all this time I had no idea that she had “rage-quit” under these circumstances. It drove home the point that many women don't discuss these issues publicly because of the lasting harm it could cause their career.
However, I had a few quibbles that dropped my rating a bit. This is a very specific story, a white rich straight lady story. Glasson benefits from a great deal of privilege which she recognizes. But I suspect economically disadvantaged women, especially women of color, might feel alienated by this account. What Glasson suffered is horrific and abusive, but the stakes are so much higher for women who could lose their job, home, and perhaps even their children for speaking out against pregnancy discrimination.
Also this felt a bit thin to me as a book. It was spun out of a memo that then evolved into an essay and now has been padded out to a memoir. I didn't read the viral essay, but I imagine the shortened format enhanced the impact. One effect of deeper context, is the inclusion of more jargon. The corporate advancement architecture will perhaps be familiar to Google employees and may resonate for other women in Big Tech, but I found it hard to follow or relate to at certain points.
However, I had a few quibbles that dropped my rating a bit. This is a very specific story, a white rich straight lady story. Glasson benefits from a great deal of privilege which she recognizes. But I suspect economically disadvantaged women, especially women of color, might feel alienated by this account. What Glasson suffered is horrific and abusive, but the stakes are so much higher for women who could lose their job, home, and perhaps even their children for speaking out against pregnancy discrimination.
Also this felt a bit thin to me as a book. It was spun out of a memo that then evolved into an essay and now has been padded out to a memoir. I didn't read the viral essay, but I imagine the shortened format enhanced the impact. One effect of deeper context, is the inclusion of more jargon. The corporate advancement architecture will perhaps be familiar to Google employees and may resonate for other women in Big Tech, but I found it hard to follow or relate to at certain points.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews