Is it a woman’s world? Maybe not yet, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t trying. The new books in this week’s book club are all about women negotiating their place and status in the world, whether it’s the entire globe, the world within, or the world of business. Go broaden your own horizons, and check them out.
<em>The Women’s Atlas (5th Edition)</em>
Seager has already released four editions of her comprehensive guide to the status of women across the globe; this updated fifth edition shares the most recent statistics, rendered textually and in easily interpretable graphics. Chapters cover everything from “body politics” to “property and policy,” and connections are drawn in surprising and often disturbing ways for anyone who may have constructed a complacent or simple narrative about how the world works for women.
<em>I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff</em>
“Before I make a decision, I tend to think about all the possible outcomes. I like to be prepared. This tendency unfortunately mainly includes obsessing over the ways in which things could go terribly off course, but it’s better to be informed. So, before embarking on a solo cross-country drive that I would then write about in a book, I made a list of possible worst-case scenarios. The road trip alone was terrifying, but writing about it afterward? A lot could go wrong. So, what’s the worst that could happen?… No one buys the book! If no one buys the book, the publisher could make me buy all the copies and I’ll have to fill my apartment with books. I guess I could create furniture out of the books, piling them up like a soda. I could throw pillows on top. I’ve had some time to think about this, and I could really make it work. Maybe my home, with its furniture completely built from my failed, unbought books, would make it into Architectural Digest? They’d come and take pictures and run a whole article about it. Who knows what could happen then?”
<em>How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings: Non-Threatening Leadership Strategies for Women</em>
“What’s the worst part of being a woman in business? We’ve asked these three men what they think.” This headline, blurring satire with reality, graces Cooper’s advice manual’s inner covers. Getting ahead in a man’s world can be difficult for a woman. It’s a veritable minefield: There are all sorts of things you can say and do that, instead of rightly proving your supreme competence, are interpreted as too aggressive. Things like, say, pointing out an error, confidently presenting an idea instead of confirming someone else’s, or expecting recognition for your work.