An insightful look at how internalizing cultural stereotypes can hold women back from competing with men.
In this follow-up to their 2009 best-seller, Womenomics, which argued for women's right to demand flexibility at the workplace, BBC World News America Washington correspondent Kay and Good Morning America contributor Shipman address how a lack of self-confidence hinders women’s career advancement.
In conversations among successful professional women, the authors have noticed a disturbing pattern: “Compared with men, we don't consider ourselves ready for promotions.” Women, they write, often have the false belief that they should not appear too aggressive—“if we just work harder and don't cause any bother, our natural talents will shine through and be rewarded.” As a result, their careers tend to prematurely plateau. Women lack the kind of self-assertiveness and self-confidence that propel their male counterparts forward, and the authors examine the reasons behind this phenomenon. Their investigation took them from the basketball court, where they spoke with WNBA stars Monique Currie and Crystal Langhorne, to the bastions of the International Monetary Fund and a conversation with Christine Lagarde, one of the most powerful women in the world. Through these interviews, Kay and Shipman confirmed their beliefs about the significant contrast between the typical male approach of pushing forward aggressively (e.g., shouting out questions or making unsubstantiated assertions in order to dominate meetings) and that of women, who instinctively hold back for fear of seeming pushy and aggressive. The authors attribute this to a lack of resilience and a drive for perfection, along with a tendency to dwell on past mistakes. After discussions with neuropsychologists and geneticists, they dismissed the importance of biological components (e.g., hormones or genes). Much more significant was the revelation by a recent graduate of the Naval Academy of the slang acronym that male cadets often apply to coeds: DUBs, or “dumb ugly bitches.”
An insightful look at how internalizing cultural stereotypes can hold women back from competing with men.Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-223062-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A labored, slanted, but worthwhile discussion of the often bizarre financial dealings of baseball, by a major player in the evolution of free agency and escalating salaries. Sports superagent Hendricks has been witness to three owner ``lockouts'' and four strikes since he began his career as an agent in 1970. Not surprisingly, he views the hard-won 1977 Basic Agreement as unfair to his clients. That agreement allowed players to become free agents after completing six years in the major leagues. But, including minor league service, it means ``eight to 10 years before they [can] obtain freedom.'' Only 30%, he notes, ever complete the six seasons. Hendricks also takes a close look at the collusion suits against the owners in the mid-1980s, which resulted in tortured mathematics (as evidenced here) to compensate players for lost income. He traces the owners' collusion to a meeting (like a ``Mafia summit'') at the 1985 World Series between then-commissioner Peter Ueberroth and Lee McPhail, outgoing chairman of the Players Relations Committee. The book is most interesting when Hendricks looks at the role of personality in the game, as with former Commissioner Fay Vincent, who stubbornly refused to be a rubber stamp for the owners. Vincent's proposal for realigning the National League, his confrontation with New York Yankees ownership, and his intervention in the collective bargaining process earned him respect but cost him his job. Hendricks's negotiations with the Boston Red Sox on behalf of pitcher Roger Clemens, gaining him a record-setting $21.5 million contract, bring some life to a text replete with charts, numbers, and legalese. He also addresses the impending players' strike that threatens the second half of the 1994 season. Tenaciously dull writing, but essential for anyone wishing to understand the business of baseball and how it got that way.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-89015-982-3
Page Count: 355
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
A top-flight aerospace engineer's engrossing reminiscences of an eventful career in the service of the CIA and US military at the height of the Cold War. With a graceful assist from Janos (co-author of Chuck Yeager's best-selling 1985 autobiography, not reviewed), Rich offers an episodic (probably vetted) account of his nearly 40 years with Lockheed's Advanced Development Projects, an ultrasecret operation better known as the Skunk Works (a name borrowed from the Dogpatch still in Al Capp's ``L'il Abner'' comic strip). During his apprenticeship, the author (who headed ADP from 1975 until his retirement at 65 in 1990) helped design, build, test, and launch the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird, America's enviably successful spy planes. On his watch, the Skunk Works produced the first jet fighter-bomber to employ stealth technology, the oddly configured F-117A, which earned its wings in the unfriendly skies above the Persian Gulf. In addition to Rich's own recital, the text includes commentary from colleagues, intelligence agents, Pentagon brass, test pilots, and others, which puts the narrator's knack for advancing the state of the aerospace art into clearer perspective. While he accentuates the positive, the author does not shy from recalling certain of his unit's turkeys, including a remote- controlled reconnaissance drone that seldom returned from missions over enemy territory; an aircraft fueled by liquid hydrogen (whose explosive power could have blown its users to bits); and a stealth picket ship (eventually sunk by the Navy's missile frigate lobby). Nor does Rich fail to settle old scores with, among others, pols more concerned with their next election than national security. Not one to hold a grudge, however, he closes with some uncommonly sensible suggestions on how US taxpayers could get more bang for their procurement buck in the parlous times ahead. An insider's accessible, informative take on what's needed to get futuristic hardware to contemporary flight lines and launching pads. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 1994
ISBN: 0-316-74330-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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