The No Club Putting a Stop to Women's Dead-End Work

Can’t Say No Club reveals the best way to bring gender equality to work: unburden women of the tasks that go unrewarded. This practical guide helps women and organizations reach their full potential.

The “Can’t Say No Club” started when four women banded together over $10 bottles of wine to try to get their work lives under control. With seemingly endless to-do lists, they were running faster than ever, yet trailing behind their male colleagues. Overwhelmed and disillusioned, they vowed to say no to requests that pulled them away from the work that mattered most to their careers. Can’t Say No Club tells the story of their over-decade-long journey and groundbreaking research to learn that the problem wasn’t unique to them, nor one they could fix on their own.

All organizations have work that no one wants. When someone needs to plan the office party, screen summer interns, take on that small, time-consuming client, or simply help others with their work—a woman, most often, takes on the task. From office housework to important assignments, this work inevitably goes unrewarded. In study upon study, authors and professors Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart—the original “No Club”—have documented that women are disproportionately asked and expected to take on “non-promotable work.” This imbalance leaves women overcommitted and underutilized as companies forfeit revenue, productivity, and top talent.

The truth is that women can’t just say no, because we expect them to say yes. This book helps women navigate this challenge to make savvy decisions about the work they do, revolutionizing how we approach our jobs. At the same time, the authors illuminate how lasting change can only come when organizations improve how they assign and reward work. With hard data, personal anecdotes from women of all stripes, and innovative advice from consulting with Fortune 500 companies, Can’t Say No Club will forever change the conversation about how we advance women’s careers and achieve equity in the 21st century.

Linda Babcock is a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the author of Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide and Ask for It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want. A behavioral economist, Babcock focuses on understanding barriers to women’s advancement in the workplace. She is the founder and director of PROGRESS, which pursues positive social change for women and girls through education, partnerships, and research. Babcock’s media appearances and mentions include Good Morning America, ABC’s World News Tonight, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, USA TODAY, and more. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Brenda Peyser held leadership positions in the academic and corporate worlds for almost thirty-five years. Most recently, she was a professor of communications at Carnegie Mellon. She served as associate dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon and was one of the founders of the Heinz College Institute for Social Innovation. She now lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Lise Vesterlund is a professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Pittsburgh Experimental Economics Laboratory. Her influential work shows how gender differences in competition, confidence, and expectations contribute to the persistent gender gap in advancement. She founded and directs the Behavioral Economic Design Initiative, to transform the world for the better through behavioral economic design. Her work has been published in leading economics journals and has garnered interest from The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, ABC, The Economist, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and more. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Laurie R. Weingart is a professor of organization behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon University. She has served as CMU’s Interim Provost, Senior Associate Dean, and Director of the Accelerate Leadership Center while at Carnegie Mellon. Her research examines negotiation, conflict, and innovation in interdisciplinary teams. With a PhD from Northwestern University, she lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.