WHAT WORKS FOR WOMEN AT WORK
Four Patterns Working Women Need to Know
By Joan C Williams and Rachel Dempsey
New York University Press
365 pages; $24.95
At the core of the book are four patterns, clusters of problems the authors identify as obstacles to success: "Prove-It-Again!," a descriptive bias that requires women to constantly demonstrate their competence; "The Tightrope," a prescriptive bias that forces women to find a balance between the competing poles of masculinity and femininity; "The Maternal Wall," which pushes working mothers to be at home rather than in the workplace; and "The Tug of War," which compels women to defend their own coping strategies and condemn those of others. Using a blend of academic research, interviews with a group of successful women Ms Williams calls the New Girls' Network, and personal anecdotes, the authors describe how these patterns apply to working women's lives and how individual women can best combat them.
It's an appealing format, one that often works quite well. The authors plough nimbly through decades of research, transforming what could have been dry and impenetrable statistics into attention-grabbing revelations. (Women with children, for instance, are 79 per cent less likely to be hired than are similarly qualified women without children. Men with children are more likely to be given a promotion or pay increase). The authors' four patterns, despite some inevitable reductionism and duplication, are sensible and easy to discern. After all, what working woman hasn't had the demoralising experience of proving herself again (and again and again) or watching a male colleague get credit for her idea, her comment, her suggestion? What woman - working or not, mother or not - hasn't felt the sting of an emotional tug of war, subtly shamed or overtly slammed by other women for making choices that seemed right to her?
What women need, and what the authors neatly provide, are strategies for manoeuvring through the complex patterns of the workplace - practical advice on what to say or do to increase their odds of success. Try paying attention to what your voice sounds like in different contexts, they suggest. Don't agree to perform "office housework" like taking notes and "serving on four billion committees." And my favourite: "Act like a duck. Glide on the surface and paddle like hell underneath."
Between their patterns and prescriptions, the authors also offer some quiet but powerful insights into less-examined aspects of workplace dynamics. They offer, for example, a ringing endorsement of paternity leave, arguing that the best way to achieve flexible policies for working mothers is to expand their use among working fathers. They approach the issue of childless women head-on, noting - as few commentators in this field do - that women without children face workplace biases that can be just as invidious as those confronted by working mothers. Finally, "What Works for Women at Work" tackles the double-whammy issue of women and race, exploring how African-American, Latina and Asian women deal with the additional, and often conflicting, expectations that surround them.
At other times, however, the language and stylistic devices of this book feel a bit laboured and even, heaven forbid, cute. The sidebar boxes of helpful hints, while straightforward, come with such frequency that they tend to interrupt the flow of the main text. Similarly, while the references to "Joan" and "Rachel" are probably necessary in a jointly written work, they also add oddly personal distractions to the authors' broader, more general points. Even odder is the realisation that, despite the appearances of both writers throughout the text, and despite their explicit family ties, we don't get a distinct sense of either woman's personality, or of the mother-daughter stresses they, like any other pair, must have experienced. Of course, none of this is necessary in a book that focuses on helping women to navigate the workplace, but then why include the first-person references and the suggestions of mother-daughter bonhomie?
In the end, "What Works for Women at Work" is a book that works, mostly. Smart and well researched, it won't steer anyone wrong. Even if the advice isn't earth-shattering, it's bound to be helpful, especially to women just embarking on their careers or those plotting the next step. After all, who among us doesn't need to be reminded that the worst question to ask a working mother is, "How do you manage it all?"
Four Patterns Working Women Need to Know
By Joan C Williams and Rachel Dempsey
New York University Press
365 pages; $24.95
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Joan C Williams has been a longtime labourer in the trenches of women's work. The founding director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law, she boldly attacked the male-dominated workplace in Unbending Gender and, with her co-author, Cynthia Thomas Calvert, provided a blueprint for increased labour flexibility in law firms in Solving the Part-Time Puzzle. Now, in collaboration with her daughter, Rachel Dempsey, Ms Williams has turned to a different kind of book. Deftly combining sociological research with a more casual narrative style, "What Works for Women at Work" offers unabashedly straightforward advice in a how-to primer for ambitious women.
At the core of the book are four patterns, clusters of problems the authors identify as obstacles to success: "Prove-It-Again!," a descriptive bias that requires women to constantly demonstrate their competence; "The Tightrope," a prescriptive bias that forces women to find a balance between the competing poles of masculinity and femininity; "The Maternal Wall," which pushes working mothers to be at home rather than in the workplace; and "The Tug of War," which compels women to defend their own coping strategies and condemn those of others. Using a blend of academic research, interviews with a group of successful women Ms Williams calls the New Girls' Network, and personal anecdotes, the authors describe how these patterns apply to working women's lives and how individual women can best combat them.
It's an appealing format, one that often works quite well. The authors plough nimbly through decades of research, transforming what could have been dry and impenetrable statistics into attention-grabbing revelations. (Women with children, for instance, are 79 per cent less likely to be hired than are similarly qualified women without children. Men with children are more likely to be given a promotion or pay increase). The authors' four patterns, despite some inevitable reductionism and duplication, are sensible and easy to discern. After all, what working woman hasn't had the demoralising experience of proving herself again (and again and again) or watching a male colleague get credit for her idea, her comment, her suggestion? What woman - working or not, mother or not - hasn't felt the sting of an emotional tug of war, subtly shamed or overtly slammed by other women for making choices that seemed right to her?
What women need, and what the authors neatly provide, are strategies for manoeuvring through the complex patterns of the workplace - practical advice on what to say or do to increase their odds of success. Try paying attention to what your voice sounds like in different contexts, they suggest. Don't agree to perform "office housework" like taking notes and "serving on four billion committees." And my favourite: "Act like a duck. Glide on the surface and paddle like hell underneath."
Between their patterns and prescriptions, the authors also offer some quiet but powerful insights into less-examined aspects of workplace dynamics. They offer, for example, a ringing endorsement of paternity leave, arguing that the best way to achieve flexible policies for working mothers is to expand their use among working fathers. They approach the issue of childless women head-on, noting - as few commentators in this field do - that women without children face workplace biases that can be just as invidious as those confronted by working mothers. Finally, "What Works for Women at Work" tackles the double-whammy issue of women and race, exploring how African-American, Latina and Asian women deal with the additional, and often conflicting, expectations that surround them.
At other times, however, the language and stylistic devices of this book feel a bit laboured and even, heaven forbid, cute. The sidebar boxes of helpful hints, while straightforward, come with such frequency that they tend to interrupt the flow of the main text. Similarly, while the references to "Joan" and "Rachel" are probably necessary in a jointly written work, they also add oddly personal distractions to the authors' broader, more general points. Even odder is the realisation that, despite the appearances of both writers throughout the text, and despite their explicit family ties, we don't get a distinct sense of either woman's personality, or of the mother-daughter stresses they, like any other pair, must have experienced. Of course, none of this is necessary in a book that focuses on helping women to navigate the workplace, but then why include the first-person references and the suggestions of mother-daughter bonhomie?
In the end, "What Works for Women at Work" is a book that works, mostly. Smart and well researched, it won't steer anyone wrong. Even if the advice isn't earth-shattering, it's bound to be helpful, especially to women just embarking on their careers or those plotting the next step. After all, who among us doesn't need to be reminded that the worst question to ask a working mother is, "How do you manage it all?"