A well-organized if sometimes-superficial survey of the successes and occasional failures of women working in what has...
Concentrating on the years 2014 through 2016, journalists Cabot and Walravens (editor: Torn: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood, 2011) tell the stories of dozens of women who are working in or leading tech companies.
With considered optimism, the authors relate a few accounts of failed companies led by women and present statistics indicating how small a percentage of women are involved in tech jobs, but they keep most of their attention on those who have managed to break through and thrive in a tough business environment. Some of these leaders took off from relatively small internet niches and parlayed them into much larger presences, such as YouTube star Michelle Phan, creator of the e-commerce cosmetics company Ipsy. Others found areas that their male counterparts ignored: Sheila Lirio Marcelo, for example, was motivated to form a site for seekers and purveyors of domestic help by her own “struggles with balancing babies and aging parents.” In addition to tech leaders, the authors consider female “angel investors” like Joanne Wilson, who invests in female startups, or the group of Chattanooga female movers and shakers who invest their collective cash in businesses run by women. Cabot and Walravens make a point of seeking out minority women, whether women of color or lesbians, to include in their account. While a majority of the book covers high earners, one chapter follows women who have pieced together tech work at home following the births of their children and suggests that such work will be increasing in the future. Using evidence of colleges where computer science departments have managed to maintain female students, the authors argue that environments where women support other women offer the most hope of success and that tech companies must reach a tipping point where women will be encouraging the growth of other women.
A well-organized if sometimes-superficial survey of the successes and occasional failures of women working in what has traditionally been a male-dominated field.Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-11226-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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