Womenomics

February 16, 2009
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.

For the harried female professional, this will be a welcome source for problem solving, brainstorming, and proven strategies for negotiating a different type of nine-to-five with her employer. Narrator Gabra Zackman sounds soothing and self-assured throughout, a style that underscores the underlying message of the entire narrative: Women are the secret assets of any corporation--as demonstrated by research and autobiographical anecdotes. As the author covers economic analysis, as well as the dilemmas of individual female employees, Zackman's tone is slightly sarcastic when called for such as when referring to the concept of classically defined success as it is solely in terms of revenue generation. Appropriately, Zackman's voice is firm when delivering the book's bottom-line message that women are major contributors at senior levels of organizations. M.R. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine