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Why Women Mean Business
Book

Why Women Mean Business

Understanding the Emergence of our next Economic Revolution

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland
Wiley, 2008

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland have carefully gazed through the gender-equality kaleidoscope and then turned it slightly – giving readers a refreshing view. Treating women as a workforce minority is no longer acceptable; nor should executives manage them in the same way as their male counterparts. Women are different from men, and their work and leadership styles reflect this difference. Treating women like men, or trying to “fix them” so they will advance in a male-centric work culture has not been successful, as demonstrated by the dearth of women in high leadership positions and on executive boards. Therefore, company leaders must reframe the gender debate and repair their biased systems. This book tells them how. getAbstract considers it important reading for human resources directors and corporate leaders, who may be heartened by its assurance that organizations that become “gender-bilingual” will find solutions to many 21st-century problems.

Take-Aways

  • Women represent more than half of the talent pool and they make most consumer purchases.
  • Gender equality can help counteract shrinking workforces and talent shortages.
  • Men and women have different “career life cycles.” Men tend to advance consistently throughout their careers, whereas women often lose momentum in their 30s.

About the Authors

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is the CEO of 20-first, a gender consultancy firm in Europe. Journalist Alison Maitland wrote for the Financial Times for two decades.

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    A. 1 decade ago
    The top 10 countries that offer women more opportunities are: Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Iceland, Luxembourg, France, Russia. Surprising to hear that the US is one of the few countries in the "developed" world that does not provide paid maternity leave...
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    A. 1 decade ago
    Great abstract! Why are there still so few women in higher leadership positions? One reason might be that they have a natural disdain for power games and politics and tend to assume a more relationship-based leadership style showing more empathy and less aggression than men do. This should be an advandage, though ...