First Friday Book Synopsis

Here is a simple fact that we can all agree on — women have not always had an easy path moving up in a man’s world.  I remember the time that I was a guest for lunch in the Los Angeles Club (this was a few decades ago).  I was told to go up the stairs to the dining room, which I did. The dining room was small, and there were a few couples scattered around.  After a few minutes, I asked the host about meeting my party, and he informed me “that would be in the main dining room, up one more slight of stairs.”  So up I went, and discovered a huge dining room — filled with nothing but men.  Not a woman in sight.  Imagine being a woman competing in that climate!

But times, they are a changing.  Our audiences at the First Friday Book Synopsis are truly a mix of men and women.  (We do have a few other barriers to overcome — we’re not as diverse as we could be).  But women, at our event, and in all areas of business, present a clear and growing force.

Recently, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, authors of Womenomics, wrote of this change in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, Fixing the Economy? It’s Women’s Work. They wrote:

While the pinstripe crowd fixates on troubled assets, a stalled stimulus and mortgage remedies, it turns out that a more sure-fire financial fix is within our grasp — and has been for years. New research says a healthy dose of estrogen may be the key not only to our fiscal recovery, but also to economic strength worldwide.

And:  The numbers make a compelling case. The studies Ernst & Young rounded up show that women can make the difference between economic success and failure in the developing world, between good and bad decision-making in the industrialized world, and between profit and loss in the corporate world. Their conclusion: American companies would do well with more senior women.

Their point is not that women should get a fair shake, a true shot at actual equality (though they should).  Their point is something far more profound — things would be better, problems could actually be solved, the future could be brighter if women were allowed to speak their voices at the problem-solving tables of the world.

I have a hunch they are right.

Over the years, we have presented synopses of a number of excellent books at the First Friday Book Synopsis focused on women and business issues:  Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman: What Men Know About Success That Women Need to Learn by Gail Evans;  Women Don’t Ask:  Negotiation and the Gender Divide and Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want, both by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever; How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business Success by Margaret Heffernan; The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America’s Greatest Woman Entrepreneur by Mary Kay Ash, among others.  With our fellow bloggers Cheryl Jensen and Sare Smith, I will speak at our first (hopefully) of many events  focused on women and business.  (Read about the August 12 event here).

This I know.  Trying to solve problems, trying to succeed in business with men only is wrong, foolish, and under-resourced.  The future may not belong to women alone , but it certainly belongs to women and men equally, and together.

(Yes, we will be presenting a synopsis of Womenomics this fall at the First Friday Book Synopsis).

{To purchase our synopses of the books mentioneed above, and many other business books, with handout + audio, go to our 15 Minute Business Book site}.