CinemaBravo

Renowned global executive Christine Duque, introduced her very first book, “Walking in My Shoes: Shattering Glass Ceilings in Corporate America,” during a virtual launch.

Select media from the Philippines, including CinemaBravo, had the opportunity to delve into the book’s empowering narrative, focusing on Duque’s personal journey and the stories of fellow Asian women, with the aim of inspiring and dismantling barriers in the corporate realm.

Duque’s book stands as a powerful testament to the experiences of Asian women in corporate America. Through her captivating story, readers traverse her personal struggles and triumphs, shedding light on the challenges of discrimination and inequality faced by women of color. Using the metaphor of different shoes, Duque navigates the corporate ladder, ultimately shattering glass ceilings in the stylish heels she metaphorically dons.

In a conversation with CinemaBravo, Duque shared insights into the book’s structure, linking each chapter to a specific type of shoe.

The prologue sets the stage for the intersection of Asians, women, and corporate America, with subsequent chapters exploring themes like disposability, the ideal corporate mold, and the diversity among women of color, depicted through various types of shoes.

Duque expressed, “The book is stories about other Asian women as well as myself. Its eight chapters are really fun.” She intricately related each chapter to a type of shoe, offering a unique perspective on the challenges faced by Asian women in the corporate landscape.

“The first shoe is about point shoe. I talk about disposability, dispensability of Asians.

“The second chapter is around Cinderella’s glass slipper, where I talk about the fact that corporate America tries to mold you into a specific ideal and it hasn’t really handed out glass slippers to Asian princesses just yet, because we really to build that critical mass in that 80% of Asian women drop off the corporate executive ladder, and we just really don’t have that representation yet from an Asian woman, corporate executive in the C-suite en masse.

“Chapter 3 is a little bit heavy. I talk about the Limited Editions. I talk about the classic black pump in the way that it’s like the uniform of corporate America, that you can size someone up between a $50 shoe and what you aspire to use in the C-suite, to a Louis Vuitton, which is $700 or $800. Everyone sizes each other up for their shoes.”

She also noted, “The rest of it talks about the Karen and the red shoes. What it is like to compete against white women in the notion of the Karens. I talk about diversity and what it’s like to compete under women of color. I talk about it as sneakers — like, Nike, Jordans, vintage Adidas, Gucci, limited edition Chuck Taylor — that all these sneakers have their diversity and different variety, and how do you compete against that.”

The book is set to launch on March 8, coinciding with International Women’s Day — symbolizing a celebration of the experiences, struggles, and triumphs of Asian American women in corporate America. Duque invites readers to join this empowering narrative by pre-ordering their copy on Amazon.com.

Christine Duque, a seasoned global executive with a track record in Fortune 50, 100, and 500 companies, is not only a successful executive. She is also a champion for diversity in the technology industry. Readers are urged to explore her transformative insights, embrace diversity, and support the empowerment of Asian women in the corporate world.