- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books; Reprint edition (Mar 1 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 046503263X
- ISBN-13: 978-0465032631
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14.7 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#255,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #23 in Books > Business & Investing > Women & Business > Management & Leadership
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Over the course of the past three decades, the phrase "glass ceiling" has entered virtually every discussion on women in the professional workplace. The phrase has become entrenched in our vernacular as the barrier it refers to--lower salary levels for women than their male counterparts, a limit on their responsibilities, and fewer promotions to positions of real power--has proven to be a disappointingly prevalent aspect of corporate life. However, as Linda Austin convincingly demonstrates in What's Holding You Back?, it's nowhere near as career and life defining as the barrier women have unconsciously erected in their own minds.
Austin points out more than half of all undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are granted to women, but notes men are still nine times more likely to reach the highest levels of professional achievement. In other words, the intelligence is obviously there, and the initial drive to do well is evident, but something slows women down on their way to the top. Tripped up by psychological blocks that have been reinforced by culture and society, many women are unable to see themselves as great achievers, Austin argues. Instead of nurturing ambition and pursuing greatness, they shy away from stepping outside the boundary of ingrained behavior patterns--patterns that compel them to "cooperate but not initiate; produce but not invent; participate but not lead; reflect but not create." Austin presents these patterns of behavior, which she identifies as eight distinct, psychological issues united by the feminine drive to affiliate with others, as the countless daily choices women make that radically affect their professional success. These behaviors include examining and fully understanding one's motivation; learning where and how to invest one's energy and focus one's intelligence; employing one's competitive drive productively and efficiently; managing relationships in order to support one's accomplishments and deal effectively with adversaries; and, of course, recognizing how best to channel one's preferred style of dealing in the universal currency of power.
Austin's observations as a psychotherapist and medical professor are fascinating, as are the included findings of other renowned researchers and writers in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. She provides case studies of women in a wide range of occupations and offers explanations and encouragement in a tone that is never condescending, often eye opening, and always inspiring. A stimulating read. --S. Ketchum --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Well-crafted and accessible, this study of the psychology of female ambition is sure to spark discussion about women's choices and the way society allocates power. A psychiatry professor and host of the nationally syndicated talk show What's On Your Mind? Austin points to figures showing that, despite 30 years of feminism, women generally have not attained the same levels of leadership as men when it comes to doctoral degrees and top-level jobs. Prompted by the attitudes of her students at the Medical University of South Carolina--where women tend to express their ambitions in multidimensional terms (i.e., to be great mothers and doctors) while men usually have a singular purpose (to be great physicians)--Austin began to research what "psychological issues most determined [women's] ability to achieve" success. This book combines her findings with abbreviated historical examples and some contemporary cases. Austin identifies eight factors that determine whether women will attain positions of power, and she suggests several reasons why women who are highly empathetic or nurturing hit what she calls the "psychological glass ceiling." Among the solutions she recommends are clarifying one's values and writing a vision statement, and carefully analyzing where to focus one's intelligence and other resources. Such advice might be appreciated by women interested in careers or lives that follow a single path, but not by those who want to change the definition of success. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Didn't deliver the answers it promissed,
By
This review is from: What's Holding You Back?: 8 Critical Choices for Women's Success (Hardcover)
I bought this book because I saw it reviewed on Oprah. They touched on all pertinent questions regarding why women feel 'stuck' and can't seem to move forward in their goals. Topics such as fear of success and taking risks, years of 'feminine'conditioning, lack of motivation and anxiety to name a few were some of the reasons. The way the book presents itself is that it will cover these topics and offer constructive advice as to how to overcome these issues and move forward. It never did. I found the book to be very informative if you want statistics and thorough research on the effects of years of feminism and how women are trying to overcome the need to nest-build and sacrifice their careers for family life. The book touched on a lot of eye-opening facts. Linda Austin wrote excessively about her research and included a lot of case studies of the professionals she interviewed, but with no practical advice or solutions. I read the book twice...maybe I missed something the first time. At the end of it I just felt worried for the future of working women...very daunting. I was not impressed at all. I was really hoping for some answers.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Self-Defeating Collaboration,
By
This review is from: What's Holding You Back?: 8 Critical Choices for Women's Success (Hardcover)
According to Austin, "Making correct choices will enable women to overcome the obstacles to professional and personal success which they now face." These choices are heavily influenced by "a powerful motivation driven by a sense of meaning" and involve "the capacity for risk-taking; the ability to focus intelligence; the ability to find and define great problems to work on; a willingness to compete in hierarchies as well as individually; the ability to tolerate and learn from failure; significant skill with difficult people; and the development of autonomy and power." Frankly, I continue to wonder why so many (most?) women still have to put up with all the illegal or at least unethical obstacles. Of course, they do. For Austin, there is one force which united all eight issues for variopus women cited, and powerfully shaped their careers: "That force was the feminine drive to affiliate with others, a drive scholars have described as the most gender-specific aspect of women's psychology." When addressing the eight critical choices for women's success, Austin organizes a wealth of information and insight within eight highly informative chapters.Austin concludes her final chapter with this observation: "Our commonality of values and ambitions may well make it easier to build lives of accomplishment as well as loving relationships, with deeper appreciation of our shared humanity." I agree. One final point: Although Austin's perspectives are gender-specific, just about all of her advice would be of substantial value to males as well as to females. I am convinced that most human limitations are self-imposed. We hold ourselves back, perhaps convinced by others that we must do so. But obviously there are other limits such as those which result from gender discrimination. They are an obscene violation of our "shared humanity" and must be eliminated immediately.
5.0 out of 5 stars
This gifted woman helps others achieve their dreams!,
By A Customer
This review is from: What's Holding You Back?: 8 Critical Choices for Women's Success (Hardcover)
I have been enthusiastically recommending this book to every woman in my peer group ever since I read it. Before I quit my job, I was a lawyer , but I also had a family that needed me at home. I was perpetually struggling to find a middle ground, to be taken seriously at work, to meet the needs of my family. I know the issues Austin discusses are real! I wish I had read the book at the beginning of my career rather than wait until I was discouraged and had already opted out of the workplace. But, when I was starting my career in the early '80's, there were no such books as this. Austin is a trailblazer, a creative thinker who wrote this book to help other women, and I thank her. My attorney friends have been very enthusiastic about the book when I recommended it, but I was surprised that some women in more "traditionally feminine" careers were put off by the "woman's libber" implication of the title, and they refused to read it. Please, don't make that mistake! Austin doesn't try to say that a woman has to fit into the same career mold as a man, nor define achievement the same way, either. In that sense, this book breaks the mold of many books about women's achievement. Austin's goal is not to give tips about how to fit into a man's world. Instead, she gives a map and compass that a woman can use to navigate her own path. A truly empowering book, it convinced me that many of my personal attributes that had sabotaged me in the workplace were, in fact, assets which I could uniquely appreciate and exploit to forge my own, creative career solutions. I think the ideal, target audience for this book is a woman who is gifted, educated, and who really wants to achieve but who doesn't quite know how to overcome the special obstacles that women typically must confront. These obstacles include things like (a chapter devoted to each of the following): the goals we choose (or don't choose) for ourselves to begin with, having self confidence even when no one encourages us, taking risks even when it's uncomfortable, focusing talents even when that means forgoing other possibilities, taking positions of leadership even if it feels like we are neglecting daily tasks, competing head to head with others, dealing with distractions, coping with failure, and wielding power. I'm not a fan of "self help" books, but I could relate with personal examples to every single issue Austin explores in her book. Her book encouraged me enough, personally, that I'm going to give it a go again in law practice, but this time on my own terms and in a way that is more true to my own values. Finally, for those intellectuals among us, this book is well enough researched and documented that, if it had footnotes, it could have been published as a scholarly text in the psychology of gifted and/or achieving women. But it doesn't read in a stilted way. It reads conversationally and easily, much like Austin's radio talk show that I listen to on S.C. Educational Radio. I honestly believe this book is a "must-read" for any woman who has experienced career frustration and who wants to set and meet goals for herself in life in a way that will be authentic to fulfilling her dream of who she wants to be as a person and as an achiever.
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