Women and Leadership
Real Lives, Real Lessons
-
- $21.99
-
- $21.99
Publisher Description
A powerful call-to-action for gender equity that offers 10 key lessons for women aspiring to a leadership role—be it in politics, business, law, or their local community.
Featuring words of wisdom from female leaders like Hillary Clinton and Theresa May, this empowering study reads like a You Are a Badass volume on world leadership.
Women make up fewer than 10% of national leaders worldwide. Behind this eye-opening statistic lies a pattern of unequal access to power. Through conversations with some of the world’s most powerful and interesting women—including Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christine Lagarde, Michelle Bachelet, and Theresa May—Women and Leadership explores gender bias and asks why there aren’t more women in leadership roles.
Speaking honestly and freely, these women talk about having their ideas stolen by male colleagues, what it’s like to be called fat or a slut in the media, and what things they wish they had done differently. The stories they tell reveal vividly how gender and sexism affect perceptions of women as leaders. Using current research as a starting point, Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala—both political leaders in their own countries—analyze the lived experiences of these women leaders. The result is a rare insight into life as a leader and a powerful call to arms for women everywhere.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gillard, the former prime minister of Australia, and Okonjo-Iweala (Reforming the Unreformable), the former finance minister of Nigeria, offer a unique study of female leadership based on conversations with eight women leaders from around the world. The interviewees, including Hillary Clinton, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, and European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde, answer questions based on the authors' hypotheses about why there are so few female leaders and how they get treated differently than their male counterparts. One key to enabling women leaders, Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala suggest (and their profile subjects confirm), is a childhood in which girls are taught they are no different than boys. Other topics include the disproportionate attention paid to women's appearances, the requirement that female leaders be both authoritative and nurturing, how to address being perceived as "a bit of a bitch," and the importance of networking. Noting that the Australian Parliament House has a childcare center and the U.K. House of Commons allows maternity leave, the authors reassure readers that family life and professional ambition can coexist. Full of practical advice and insights into the careers of a diverse and impressive array of women, this is a valuable handbook for putting more women in positions of power.
