Women in Business

The detailed life stories of nine women academics in North American business faculties--three in their early careers, three at tenure time, and three who are recognized leaders in their field. Their stories are interpreted as a set of choices, and the insights and strategies are developed for the reader.

The United States has a large number of well educated, experienced professional women ready, willing and able to move into the boardrooms and executive suites of corporate America. Together they represent a great, untapped economic resource, a resource no other country in the world can claim. This is America's competitive secret, argues Judy B. Rosener in this refreshingly pragmatic new book for managers who want to improve their bottom line. A leading expert on women and men at work and a highly sought-after speaker, Rosener argues that not only are men and women different, so are male and female managers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with top-flight executives and middle managers and the latest research on working women and organizational change, she describes the unique contribution of female professionals. Her profiles of top women managers reveal that they cope well with ambiguity, are comfortable sharing power, and they tend to empower others-- leadership traits that Rosener contends lead to increased employee productivity, innovation, and profits. As businesses today struggle with corporate reorganization and an increasingly diverse workforce, America's Competive Secret offers compelling evidence that the changes that help organizatiions more fully utilize the talents of women are the same changes that will give them an important edge in today's fast-changing, service oriented, global workplace. Rosener explains why the so-called glass ceiling still prevents many competent women from reaching the upper echelons of management. She analyzes why women and men are perceived and evaluated differently at work, and provides new insight into the feelings of men who are asked to interact with women in new roles when there are few new rules. Rosener shows that removing the glass ceiling can no longer be viewed solely in terms of social equity--it is now an economic imperative. Too many American businesses have limited their economic strength by viewing the promotion of women employees only within the context of federally mandated affirmative action laws and policies. America's Competitive Secret redefines the issue for a new era, showing that America's most successful competitive strategy is one that most effectively utilizes all its human resources.

Women compose nearly half of today's workforce, are in more management positions than ever before, and have reached every level of the Fortune 500--except the most important ones. This book explodes long-held myths and provides practical advice on the first steps needed to effectively break the glass ceiling.

"The Cost of Being Female is 30 cents", say the authors of this new book on discrimination against women. They demonstrate their thesis by constructing an index that documents the costs of discrimination against women in five aspects of life: economic, political, social, education, and health. The index compares the costs for American women with those of women in Sweden, Norway, France, and China, and measures the costs for three time periods: 1990s, 1950s, and the 19th century. The authors interviewed over 70 women, providing a human approach to the statistics of earnings, occupations, political participation, marriage, divorce, childbearing, education, and women's health. The women's narratives are living testimony to the experiences of the costs of being female.

The authors of this study bring into perspective the woman entrepreneur and some of the unique problems she faces as the owner and operator of her own business. The book follows the entrepreneurial process from concept development through expansion, growth, and transitions to an established business. Among the topics covered are networking among woman entrepreneurs, business growth, financing, the role of trustees, and changing the direction of a business's operations. The appendix lists sources of advisory and financial assistance to the woman entrepreneur. The topics covered are the issues that any business faces, but the authors bring into perspective the woman entrepreneur and some of the unique problems she faces as the owner and operator of her business.

So entrenched, long established, and powerful is the "patriarchy" within organizations that women have serious difficulty acquiring positions of real importance, even when it is in the organization's best interest to use their talents fully (and reward them equitably). Reeves surveys the structural obstacles to women's advancement within organizations and explains the mechanisms by which gender discrimination operates. Her book combines theory with case study accounts of 10 women who were suppressed, then fired, and documents how that sort of termination process works. The result is a fresh, new look at a seemingly intractable problem, presented readably and objectively.