Womenomics

February 16, 2009
This collaboration between broadcasting powerhouses Shipman and Kay gives career women explicit permission to demand the balance that’s been missing in their lives. The authors assert that after decades of trying to outdo men or fighting the “Mommy Wars” in the office trenches of the 1980s and 1990s, women have gained enough corporate clout to start changing the workplace to suit their needs. Shipman and Kay review the depth of women’s influence as consumers and earners, maintaining that their power gives them the right and the ability to ask for flexibility in their work lives, to negotiate assertively and effectively, to say no and to give up the guilt associated with getting their needs met. Through Shipman and Kay’s own stories of struggling with demanding work and home lives and anecdotes from other working mothers, the authors make a convincing argument that with some mental and emotional effort, women can create their ideal work and home lives. Filled with pragmatic and optimistic steps, this book will inspire readers to set in motion a flexibility-driven business revolution that can benefit all women and men, families and workforces.

September 28, 2009
Want to work less but achieve more? Coauthors Shipman and Kay argue that this is possible and desirable for women who like their jobs, but are tired of logging 60-hour work weeks and sneaking out to catch their children's Christmas plays during school hours. Kay and Shipman open the audiobook themselves by reading their introduction. Both women are broadcast journalists very experienced in narration. Why, then, do these talented women surrender the rest of the book to a third party? Gabra Zackman does a credible job with the remaining chapters, but her soothing tone seems out of place, and she has to begin alternating sections by announcing which author wrote them—a problem that didn't exist in the introduction, when both authors simply read their own material. Despite strong content, the delivery falls flat. A Collins Business hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 16).