Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success

Claire Shipman & Katty Kay

Language: English

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: Jun 2, 2009

Description:

“A personal, provocative, and challenging book for career women who want less guilt, more life.”
—Diane Sawyer

Womenomics, the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay, is an invaluable guide for this generation of professional women, provide knowledgeable advice on how to “Work Less, Achieve More, Live Better.” Shipman and Kay, two TV journalists well acquainted with the stress of the workplace, describe the new economic trends that offer today’s overworked working women more professional and personal choices than ever before. At last, you no longer have to do it all to have it all— Womenomics shows you how.

From Publishers Weekly

This collaboration between broadcasting powerhouses Shipman and Kay gives career women explicit permission to demand the balance that's been missing in their lives. The authors assert that after decades of trying to outdo men or fighting the Mommy Wars in the office trenches of the 1980s and 1990s, women have gained enough corporate clout to start changing the workplace to suit their needs. Shipman and Kay review the depth of women's influence as consumers and earners, maintaining that their power gives them the right and the ability to ask for flexibility in their work lives, to negotiate assertively and effectively, to say no and to give up the guilt associated with getting their needs met. Through Shipman and Kay's own stories of struggling with demanding work and home lives and anecdotes from other working mothers, the authors make a convincing argument that with some mental and emotional effort, women can create their ideal work and home lives. Filled with pragmatic and optimistic steps, this book will inspire readers to set in motion a flexibility-driven business revolution that can benefit all women and men, families and workforces. (June)
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Review

“A personal, provocative and challenging book for career women who want less guilt, more life.” — Diane Sawyer

“Womenomics describes the workplace trend that finally makes it possible for women to be successful and sane at the same time. And happily, it’s a recession-friendly formula. — Tina Brown, founder, The Daily Beast

“Shipman and Kay have issued a rallying cry for women that is also a wake-up call for men. Our wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers are reshaping business as we know it. And that can make us all better off.” — Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind

“Without wasted words, Shipman and Kay provide practical suggestions for how you can take charge of your career with courage and confidence.” — Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D., author of Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office

“Womenomics makes a compelling statement about the financial impact women can have in the workplace and offers valuable ideas for capitalizing on this trend, even in this economic climate.” — Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

“Buy a copy of Womenomics for yourself, your best friend, your daughter, your star employee, and even your boss.” — Cathie Black, president, Hearst Magazines and author of Basic Black

“Employers should be listening to what talented women want and use this book to hold up their end of the bargain, so that the best and brightest can have both a job and a life.” — Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, and author of Confidence

“Every woman who’s ever been knocked off course in the quest to have the elusive ‘all’ should run out and buy this book today!” — Dee Dee Myers, former White House press secretary and author of Why Women Should Rule the World

From the Back Cover

You are not alone. Finally, here is a book that gets to the heart of what professional women want. You've probably been loath to admit it, but like most of us, you have had enough of the sixty-hour workweeks, the day-care dash, and the vacations that never get taken. You don't want to quit, you want to work—but on your own terms and in ways that make it possible to have a life as well.

Women have power. In Womenomics , journalists Shipman and Kay deal in facts, not stereotypes, providing a fresh perspective on the largely hidden power that women have in today's marketplace. Why? Companies with more women managers are more profitable. Women do more of the buying. A talent shortage looms. Younger generations want to work flexibly, too. It all adds up to a workplace revolution that is great news for professional women—not to mention men and businesses as well. As Brenda Barnes, CEO of Sara Lee, notes: “Companies need to recognize that this kind of flexibility offers employees the ability to manage and balance their own careers and lives, which in turn improves productivity and employee morale.” This new way of thinking and working is all the more valuable in a recession, as companies begin offering flexible schedules, four-day workweeks, and extended vacations as a way to avoid layoffs, save costs, and still reward employees.

It is personal. Womenomics does more than marshal the evidence of this historic shift. It also shows women how to redefine success, be productive, and build satisfying careers that don't require an all-or-nothing lifestyle. Most appealing are the candid personal anecdotes from Shipman's and Kay's own experiences and the stories they have gathered from professional women around the country who are coping with the same issues.

It is possible. Shipman and Kay don't waste time on what women can't do or can't have. Instead, they show women how to chart an empowering, exhilarating course to a richer life. Inspiring, practical, and persuasive, Womenomics offers a groundbreaking blueprint for changing the way you live and work—with advice, guidance, and fact-based support that proves you don't have to do it all to have it all.

About the Author

Claire Shipman is a journalist, author, and public speaker. She’s the author, along with Katty Kay, of two New York Times bestsellers, Womenomics: Work Less, Achieve More, Live Better and The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know. Before turning to writing, Claire spent almost three decades as an award-winning television journalist. For the last fourteen years, Claire was a regular contributor to Good Morning America and other national broadcasts for ABC News. Before that, she served as White House correspondent for NBC News, where she regularly reported on presidential policy and politics for NBC Nightly News and Today. Prior to that, she worked for CNN for a decade, covering the White House, and she was also posted in Moscow for five years, reporting on the fall of the Soviet Union. Claire’s coverage from Moscow helped CNN earn a National Headliners Award and a coveted Peabody Award. She received a DuPont Award and an Emmy Award for coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student uprising, as well as a DuPont Award for CNN’s coverage of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. She graduated from Columbia College and later earned a master’s degree from the School of International Affairs there. She’s now a member of Columbia’s board of trustees. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and their two children and three dogs. Visit Claire online at www.theconfidencecode.com.

Katty Kay is the Washington, DC, anchor for BBC World News America. She is a regular guest on NBC's Meet the Press and MSNBC's Morning Joe. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and four children.