Books Every Working Woman Should Read

#GIRLBOSS, by Sophia Amoruso
As a teen, Sophia Amoruso was shoplifting and dumpster-diving, jumping from menial job to menial job. As an adult, she’s the founder, creative director, and CEO of Nasty Gal, a $100-million online retailer of clothes, shoes, and accessories for the same kind of irreverent, self-possessed, slightly punk/slightly hip-hop young woman she’s become. In this frank, no-nonsense (“Money looks better in the bank than on your feet”), at times saucy, mix of memoir and advice, Amoruso recalls her path to success and offers solid direction—chapters include “On Hiring, Staying Employed, and Firing” and “Taking Care of (Your) Business”—while reminding readers of the most important thing: Girlbosses are not afraid to fly their freak flags.

Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg
Last year’s corporate feminist manifesto prompted a national conversation on leaning in, diving in, looking forward, and leaning out. Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, doesn’t just complain that women are still falling behind in the workplace, but lays some of the responsibility at their own feet. She addresses self-doubt and insecurity and offers advice on finding and utilizing mentors, taking risks, balancing home and work life, and discovering assertiveness, so women’s voices can finally be heard above the male-dominated din of industry and government. A mix of personal anecdotes and tough love will strike a chord with women who want to have it all.

Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, by Arianna Huffington
The conservative-turned-liberal columnist-turned-HuffPo namesake and founder has written her 14th book, this one inspired by a commencement speech she delivered at Smith College in 2013. If money and power are the first two metrics of success, then Huffington says there must be a third defined by well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving back, or we’re all in for a burnout. Calling for more sleep, less stress, less technological distraction, and less multitasking, Huffington might be the pot calling the kettle black, but she provides concrete suggestions (apps like Anti-Social and RescueTime; meditation and yoga; not keeping your phone by your bed) and sound life—not just business—advice.

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know, by Meg Meeker
“Fathers, be good to your daughters/ Daughters will love like you do,” sang John Mayer in 2004. Three years later, we got pediatrician Meg Meeker’s book making a somewhat longer but similar case. Writing from a conservative, indirectly Catholic perspective, Meeker puts responsibility on fathers to help shape the women their daughters will become. It’s attention, protection, courage, wisdom, and, yes, ground rules that girls need, and Meeker offers ten ways dads can provide that magic, supportive environment.

Womenomics, by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
In their first book, Shipman and Kay argue that women, increasingly valuable to businesses, have the ability to negotiate workplace flexibility. Like good journalists, Shipman (Good Morning America) and Kay (BBC World News America) provide hard numbers as well as anecdotal evidence and bite-sized “news you can use” (advice). Stop taking drudge work, they say, that cheapens your time. If you want a four-day week, ask for it, and be prepared for a counteroffer. Tips like these might benefit women of a certain age and position in their career more than women starting out, working for themselves, or working to get by, but the authors’ belief that the tide is truly turning is encouraging.

The Confidence Code, by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
Kay and Shipman’s second book delves into the number one thing many experts say is stalling women in the workplace: lack of confidence. Looking at the neuroscience and psychology of confidence, the two explore why women seem to have less than men, and how we can change that— and not just by faking it. They offer techniques for ridding ourselves of “negative automatic thoughts” and identify perfectionism as the enemy. The book is rounded out with interviews with highly successful women from a wide variety of fields, from the basketball court to the International Monetary Fund, all of whom have struggled with self-confidence.

Leading Women: 20 Influential Women Share Their Secrets to Leadership, Business, and Life, by Nancy D. O’Reilly
O’Reilly, a clinical psychologist and motivational speaker, gathered twenty female leadership experts, coaches, writers, and entrepreneurs to contribute to this anthology of motivational essays. Divided into sections devoted to “Mastering Our External Environment” and “Mastering Our Internal Environment,” O’Reilly takes it a step further with a third section on “Connecting to Support Each Other,” because, as Taylor Swift once said Katie Couric said, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” Bonus: chock-full of pull-quotes ready to be sticky-noted to your bathroom mirror.

Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, by Lois P. Frankel
Wouldn’t the movie Dirty Dancing have been better if Baby herself had been the one to say, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner—unless it’s a corner office.” Yeah, we think so. So, we suspect, would Frankel. Revised and updated since its initial publication ten years ago, Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office outlines 133(!) behaviors that women exhibit, often unconsciously, which hold them back in business. Some will sound familiar (Mistake #54: Failure to negotiate), while others are clear updates (Mistake #131: Engaging in email wars) and some are downright zingers (Mistake #36: Decorating your office like your living room). It all starts with a useful self-assessment score sheet.

Playing Big, by Tara Mohr
Remember that ’90s bumper sticker you used to see on monster trucks: If you can’t play with the big dogs, stay on the porch? Mohr, a Stanford MBA and personal coach, thinks women have been staying on the porch far too long. She wants all women, not just those climbing the corporate ladder, to dream bigger, try bigger, fail bigger, and live bigger. That means no more self-doubt and dependence on praise and lots more shameless self-promotion, visualization, and, yes, journaling.

Queen Bees and Wannabes, by Rosalind Wiseman
Queen Bees is the book that inspired the 2004 movie Mean Girls, but not all that’s in it is a laughing matter. Wiseman, a parenting educator and bullying expert, jumps headlong into “Girl World” and all its confounding, horrifying, and occasionally heartwarming realities. From cliques, to bullying, to expectations of physical beauty, and, of course, sex, drugs, and alcohol, this book is a glimpse into the life your teenage (or pre-teen) daughter would never show you. Still filled with real-life quotes and anecdotes, the second edition has been updated to address newfangled torture devices like social media and texting, and the changes that are happening in girls at a younger and younger age.

Financially Fearless: The LearnVest Program for Taking Control of Your Money, by Alexa Von Tobel
If financial planning is like trying to lose weight, then a lot of women are sick of crash diets. Enter Alexa Von Tobel, inventor of the LearnVest program, which has women (and men) getting into financial shape by committing to a 50-20-30 spending breakdown. That’s 50 percent of income for the “essentials” (a slippery term, which Von Tobel fixedly defines), 20 for the future (including paying off debt), and 30 for whatever it is that makes you happy, whether it’s Hummel figurines or a trip to Disney World. In a breezy, conversational tone, Von Tobel walks readers through the program, from taking stock to setting up a plan and hedging against financial disaster.

How Remarkable Women Lead, by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston
As consultants for multinational management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Barsh and Cranston know a thing or two about what it takes to lead. So do the superstar women, executives, and leaders they interview. Barsh and Cranston call their model Centered Leadership, with a focus on optimism, purpose, and personal fulfillment. Within the model, Barsh and Cranston see the opportunity and requirement for Meaning, Framing, Connecting, Engaging, and Energizing, which act as section titles. It’s high-octane inspiration.

Mistakes I Made at Work, by Jessica Bacal
Why is it that failure in another person makes us like them more? Perhaps because it lets us accept failure in ourselves. With that in mind, it’s likely you’ll find much to relate to in the tales shared by the twenty-five women in this anthology: writers, media moguls, artists, CEOs, and doctors, all impressive and all, it turns out, flawed. Bacal, the book’s editor, does a good job of grouping the narratives into wider lessons, like “Learning to Ask” and “Learning Resilience.”

Raising Girls, by Steve Biddulph
Raising girls is hard. But not impossible, according to Steve Biddulph, a family psychologist from Tasmania, Australia, who initially made his name studying boys and men. His daughter manual describes five stages of girlhood, from birth to eighteen, and covers the usual obstacles faced by teen girls and their parents, including mean girls, sex, alcohol, body image and eating disorders, and, of course, the internet. Mother-daughter and father-daughter relationships are covered in separate chapters, and in both, Biddulph favors close monitoring and role modeling. Trust us, they’ll thank you one day.

When She Makes More: 10 Rules for Breadwinning Women, by Farnoosh Torabi
Bringing home the bacon as a woman is not always easy. For even the most enlightened couples, Torabi argues, when the woman makes more, priorities shift and expectations become clouded. The financial guru turns love doctor when she hands down ten rules, based on interviews with real women, to keep income inequality from ruining a relationship. While some of her advice will not appeal to or be possible for all (get a prenup and a housekeeper), others are valuable for everyone (don’t trivialize emotional effects on your partner, and plan babies). While Torabi focuses on heterosexual relationships, her advice is helpful for any couple struggling with income disparity.

Brave Girls: Raising Young Women with Passion and Purpose to Become Powerful Leaders, by Stacey Radin with Leslie Goldman
Ask a successful, confident, powerful woman how she got where she is today, and she would probably not say “middle school.” Psychologist Stacey Radin would. It’s a rough time for most girls, what with all the changing bodies, hormones, Lady Bic razors, and social politics (see above), but Radin has a solution: Teach girls to honor their strengths and stand up for their personal values by getting them involved in activism and advocacy. Radin’s crusade of choice is Unleashed, the after-school program she started that pairs pre-teens with rescue pups, but the principles she’s espousing can be applied to other causes as well.
 
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