Review by New York Times Review
STEALING THE SHOW: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television, by Joy Press. (Atria, $26.) A former TV critic for The Village Voice reports on some remarkable women who have managed to make shows on their own terms, including Diane English ("Murphy Brown"), Shonda Rhimes ("Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal") and Jill Soloway ("Transparent"). A LAB OF ONE'S OWN: Science and Suffrage in the First World War, by Patricia Fara. (Oxford University, $24.95.) Fara offers a vibrant series of profiles of women for whom the war presented an opportunity to take on roles in the scientific and medical realm, previously denied them. BACK TALK: Stories, by Danielle Lazarin. (Penguin, paper, $16.) Short fiction that probes the lives of American women whose privilege doesn't protect them from society's burdens. Beautifully crafted, these stories aren't without viscera; sublimated rage fills the crevices between them. BRAZEN: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World, by Penelope Bagieu. (First Second, $24.95.) A celebrated French graphic novelist, Bagieu brings together colorful, whimsical portraits of women - some known and some obscure - who broke the mold and lived life as they wanted. JUST THE FUNNY PARTS:... And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys' Club, by Nell Scovell. (Dey St./Morrow, $27.99.) In this memoir of life as a TV comedy writer, Scovell lays out the years of toxic misogyny she endured on various sets, and catalogs the men who were antagonists instead of comrades. It's not a short list. MRS., by Caitlin Macy. (Little, Brown, $27.) A bristling, funny, savage novel that homes in on the conflicted lives of three ultrawealthy Manhattan wives and the corrupt man on whom they take vengeance. Along the way it focuses boldly on the depths of women's experiences and their struggles with male power. THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID: What Men Need to Know (And Women Need to Tell Them), by Joanne Lipman. (Morrow, $28.99.) Lipman, a seasoned journalist and newspaper editor, investigates the plight of working women with sympathy and reams of data, uncovering innumerable institutionalized prejudices. I WROTE THIS BECAUSE I LOVE YOU: Essays, by Tim Kreider. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) In Kreider's pleasurable and well-wrought essays, an affable hero gamely bumbles through adventures rich with moments of fleeting profundity and moral reckoning. THIS WILL BE MY UNDOING: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America, by Morgan Jerkins. (Harper Perennial, paper, $15.99.) These challenging essays show how a sexist, racist culture prescribes black identity. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Despite years of diversity training, mentoring, and other efforts, corporate America still suffers from a significant gender gap. Lipman, who herself worked in the then-male-dominated field as a reporter at the Wall Street Journal and who is currently editor in chief at USA Today, feels that the real solution is to get men involved in the discussion of these issues. Using wide-ranging examples, such as Google, the Harvard Business School, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the nation of Iceland which is currently rated number one for gender equality she advocates that solutions will arise when more men become genuine advocates for women. She sees this already occurring with members of the millennial generation, but it still has a long way to go in the entrenched and powerful managers of her own generation. That's What She Said shows why empowering women as true equals is an essential goal for women and men and Lipman suggest pathways that can make that happen.--Tyckoson, David Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Lipman (Strings Attached), editor-in-chief of USA Today, makes a bold statement with this important book examining biases favoring men in business. In this road map to empowerment, Lipman explains that it's not just men who devalue their female colleagues' work, but also the women themselves, as perhaps most tellingly illustrated by a survey of social-psychology studies observing this phenomenon beginning in childhood. To be sure, readers will learn here of companies actively addressing gender imbalances. Lipman commends Blake Irving of GoDaddy, a company once notorious for sexist advertising, for becoming an outspoken proponent of equal pay. Elsewhere she observes that after the U.S.'s leading symphony orchestras began blind auditions, wherein auditioning musicians perform behind a screen, female representation skyrocketed, from 5% in 1970 to nearly 50% today- a tactic she finds applicable to the business world. According to one dramatic figure Lipman cites, encouraging women who gave up work for motherhood to rejoin the labor pool could add as much as $2.1 trillion to the U.S. economy. This book goes a step further than Sheryl Sandberg's bestselling Lean In and challenges both men and women to examine their own prejudices and actively reshape work cultures to be more welcoming to women. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A sweeping, salient survey of the gender gap in corporate America.There are scores of bestselling books about being female in the workplace, most of which are written by women for women. Lipman (co-author: Strings Attached: One Tough Teacher and the Art of Perfection, 2013, etc.) attempts to bump the dialogue to another level by including men in the conversation. Currently the chief content officer of Gannett and editor-in-chief of USA Today, the author has long been a fixture in the upper echelons of American journalism. In this volume, she combines decades of her own observations and experiences with a profusion of data-driven research about the state of the gender unionor disunionin the workplace. The sheer number of stories and statistics can be overwhelming at times, but they do conclusively demonstrate that inequality and sexism are alive and well in the workplace. Establishing these facts seems less about proving a point and more about getting details out of the way before moving to the main inquiry of the booknamely, how to bring about real change? Lipman chronicles numerous initiativesmany spearheaded by menindicating that, "despite intractable issues of misogyny and abuse in some corners, we are closing in on solutions." Such programs as formal mentoring programs, blind job applications, and various educational initiatives are making a difference, though on a grand scale, the gains appear to be slight and slow. Despite the many obstacles, the book is packed with pithy insights on how real change might occur. The author notes that it will take more than just men and women reaching across the gender divide and working together; it will also require each sex to examine how they are perpetuating a workplace ideal that favors men. Impressively, Lipman manages to call out the problem and stare it squarely in the face without demonizing or alienating those who are vital to its solution.A solid start to an essential, gender-inclusive conversation. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
