That's What She Said

Going beyond the message of Lean In and The Confidence Code, Gannett’s Chief Content Officer contends that to achieve parity in the office, women don’t have to change—men do—and in this inclusive and realistic handbook, offers solutions to help professionals solve gender gap issues and achieve parity at work.

Companies with more women in senior leadership perform better by virtually every financial measure, and women employees help boost creativity and can temper risky behavior—such as the financial gambles behind the 2008 economic collapse. Yet in the United States, ninety-five percent of Fortune 500 chief executives are men, and women hold only seventeen percent of seats on corporate boards. More men are reaching across the gender divide, genuinely trying to reinvent the culture and transform the way we work together. Despite these good intentions, fumbles, missteps, frustration, and misunderstanding continue to inflict real and lasting damage on women’s careers.

What can the Enron scandal teach us about the way men and women communicate professionally? How does brain circuitry help explain men’s fear of women’s emotions at work? Why did Kimberly Clark blindly have an all-male team of executives in charge of their Kotex tampon line? In That’s What She Said, veteran media executive Joanne Lipman raises these intriguing questions and more to find workable solutions that individual managers, organizations, and policy makers can employ to make work more equitable and rewarding for all professionals.

Filled with illuminating anecdotes, data from the most recent relevant studies, and stories from Lipman’s own journey to the top of a male-dominated industry, That’s What She Said is a book about success that persuasively shows why empowering women as true equals is an essential goal for us all—and offers a roadmap for getting there.

This timely and essential guide for modern leaders reveals a new way forward:
Men as Allies: Why engaging men as partners in the conversation—without blame or shame—is the only way to solve 50 percent of the problem and achieve true parity.Gender Bias: Intriguing case studies from the Enron scandal, brain science, and even the Kotex tampon line that reveal how hidden assumptions affect everyday decisions in the office.The Pay Gap: An eye-opening look at why women don’t ask for raises (and are often penalized when they do), and what managers can do to ensure fair compensation.Professional Communication: A clear-eyed breakdown of the conversational blind spots between men and women, from interruptions and "mansplaining" to the fear of tears at work.