Insubordinate: 12 New Archetypes for Women Who Lead

by Jocelyn Davis

Overview

Witch. Temptress. Snow Queen.

For ages, labels like these have been used to malign women and deny their leadership potential. Now, we're reclaiming them.

International leadership expert Jocelyn Davis presents twelve timeless female archetypes reimagined and refreshed with stories of literary and everyday women who fought, cajoled, commanded, schemed, or blasted their way free of the chains that bound them. Discover your personal types, along with inspiration and strategies for expanding your range, tapping your inner power, and unleashing your natural leadership in work and life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637553879
Publisher:	Amplify Publishing
Publication date:	03/21/2023
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	1,077,205
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jocelyn Davis is an internationally known author and speaker and the former head of R&D for a global leadership development consultancy. Her previous business books include Strategic Speed, The Greats on Leadership, and The Art of Quiet Influence. Her latest is a historical novel, The Age of Kali, called "brilliant," "heretical," and "deeply moving." Jocelyn holds master's degrees in philosophy and Eastern classics. She grew up in a foreign-service family living in many regions of the world, including Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean. Currently she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visit her website at JocelynRDavis.com.

Editorial Reviews

2023-01-05
A guide to leadership archetypes for women that’s based on literary figures.

Davis, a public speaker who previously worked in global leadership development, offers a guide aimed at women in the business/corporate world that has the potential to reach a larger readership. The book’s introduction to the author’s spectrum, or wheel, of archetypes includes a quiz for identifying where one may categorize oneself among four quadrants representing paired elements of Fire-Earth, Earth-Water, Water-Air, and Air-Fire. Each chapter then moves through specific archetypes within these quadrants, ranging from the Temptress (who “Bring[s] the fun”) to the Mama Bear (who “Identif[ies] with [their] team’s success”) to the Empath (who “Err[s] toward generosity”) to the Witch (who’s “judiciously ruthless” but also heals rifts). The book also includes a chapter about the “Master Maid,” who embodies the ability to master qualities from all archetypes, as situations demand. Davis describes each archetype with examples from classical and folk literature—notably, not all of it Western—from Lysistrata to Shahrazade (aka Scheherazade). She then pairs each literary archetype with a counterpart from her own life who best embodies its qualities. Davis’ book can be likened to Jean Shinoda Bolen’s now-classic Goddesses in Everywoman (1984), which used the Greek goddesses as sources for female psychological archetypes. Like Bolen, Davis acknowledges that it’s possible for a person to fit one archetype yet still make use of others. That said, not all of Davis’ examples are equally strong; for instance, in her discussion of the Escapist, the author only acknowledges in passing that the Escapist tactic of evasion isn’t always possible when one is being actively pursued. Still, this is a thoughtful and highly readable book that highlights the enduring value of folk and classical literature, even in the world of business and commerce.

A delightful and wide-ranging folkloric self-help work.

Kirkus Reviews