Women and men in the workplace

The latest Time magazine probed me to two interesting books for women in the business world. Yes, for women. I am not a sexist, nor a positive sexist. I am inclined to be open to books especially written for women. They are Shari Storm's Motherhood is the new MBA : using your parenting skills to be a better boss (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2009) and Roxanne Rivera's There's no crying in business : how women can succeed in male-dominated industries (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). I have a strong opinion that men could also benefit from this type of books. First of all, to understand the opposite sex; second, perhaps more importantly, to know how we (men) might be understood and treated. To balance my over-feminine reading load, I have another book on the list, for men: Shaunti Feldhahn's The male factor : the unwritten rules, misperceptions, and secret beliefs of men in the workplace (New York: Broadway Books, 2009). As you could see, unfortunately or inevitably, this is written by a she, a bestseller author who has also written a book for women. I haven't read this book yet but it forces me to think that women may know men better than we do.

How different/similar it could be to manage a company with adults and a house with kids? Storm, the chief marketing officer for a Seattle credit union, gives you the answers. Storm's book is "a compilation of a few of the things" she have learned from raising her three daughters as well as over sixty women who are mothers, managers, and mentors (such as Kirsten Lowry of Nintendo of America). She provides very interesting and stimulating analogy between motherhood and management to help two types of women. First, obviously, working moms. Second, absolutely not less relevant, women who might have children in the future to understand that motherhood does not have to be a career liability.