Book Review: The Female Vision

The Female Vision
Women's Real Power at Work

by Sally Helgesen and Julie Johnson


Why aren't more women in business and, more importantly, in management?

The authors distill our current dilemma into a few major points:

1)  Our modern business structure was built at a time where women were not involved.

2)  Because of this fact, women are not an essential structural backbone of "most" businesses (or what I've begun to think of as legacy industries).

3)  And finally, women's strongest attributes are not appreciated and recognized by upper management (and I add, even by other women who might happen to be in management).


Because management is largely male dominated, only those attributes that they appreciate are rewarded.  That which they do not understand is not rewarded.  Very much a catch-22.

The authors also make a startling point, women place a different value on their jobs than men do.  Women want to be productive and useful in this job, right now, while men will work in a unfulfilling position in order to attain future advancement.  When women are not fulfilled, they leave their jobs ... describing their dissatifaction with the phrase, "It was not worth it."


So how do we change our business culture and invite women to stick around with fulfilling positions?  The authors make these four recommendations:

1)  Value diverse ways of knowing.  Not everything needs to come down to quantitative numbers.  Intuition is very valuable.  Trust it and make use of it.  Make it an integral part of your team.

2)  Encourage Mindfulness.  Give people the time and space to cogitate and produce.  This is when the brain is creative.  This is where the next amazing ideas begin.

3)  Support Webs of Inclusion.  Make those networking skills work for the good of the company.  Network within your structure at least as much as you network outside your structure.  Women tend to hesitate to ring their own bell, but your co-workers won't know what you can do and how you can help them until you tell them.

4)  Respect the power of empathy.  Women tend to empathize with people better than men.  Organizations who value and use this characteristic are much better off than organizations that do not.


The authors mention a number, 70%, early on in this small book.  That is the amount of skills and abilities they estimate women can tap into with our current business culture.  Imagine a business world where women could use 100% of their talents.  How much better off would we be as a world, nation, city, company, team, individual?



I have left the world of big business, as I found the male dominated oil field to be a frustrating, unfulfilling, irritating waste of my time.  My first boss was a great guy, my second boss was unworthy of the title.  And upper-level management was a hold over from the dark ages.

I later found out that one guy in mid-level management predicted my actions, he noticed I was bored out of my mind and told my boss he needed to engage me or I was outta there.  A couple weeks later, I handed in my notice.