24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
World Class Role Models for Women and Their Parents, March 10, 2001
This review is from: How Jane Won: 55 Successful Women Share How They Grew from Ordinary Girls to Extraordinary Women (Hardcover)
If you are like me and enjoyed See Jane Win, you will find this book even more valuable and moving!
This book deserves more than five stars for providing essential perspectives that women can use to build happier and more successful lives. How Jane Won should be in the hands of all girls and young women. The 55 examples will surely capture elements that echo deep in each reader's heart and mind.
The book is organized to make it easy to use. All of the key points from See Jane Win are included here. If you have not yet read that book, you can simply read this one instead. This book is divided into sections around current career activities: Lawmakers and Adjudicators; Shatterers of Glass Ceilings (mostly businesswomen); Healers and Discoverers; Nurturers; Artists and Musicians; and Communicators.
So, if you are a young woman who likes science, you can read the sections that include women who have pursued scientific careers. If you want to go into business, you can read that section. If you think you want to be an at-home parent, you can read the section about nurturers.
I do suggest that everyone read the whole book at some point. The stories contain many general lessons, even when the career isn't one that you or your daughter might want to choose.
For parents, the nice surprise is how much each woman spoke about her mother and father. You can get a good sense of how those roles are pursued can help . . . or hold a young woman back.
Aside from summarizing the research of 1000 women in See Jane Win, the book is totally divided into brief autobiographical descriptions of the key steps along the way to each woman's success. What surprised me was that these women did see themselves as ordinary girls when young, even when they knew they were very talented in a particular area.
These women were selected in most cases for their current prominence or high degree of success. They are not a cross sample. They are avatars in their fields, in most cases. They range in age from 30 to 80, so you get perspectives from different generations. Because of this approach the book can be helpful to older women, as well, who are thinking about "what next?" at some key point in their lives.
Here are some of the famous women included in the book (in order of their appearance): Christine Todd Whitman, Sandra Day O'Connor, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Cathleen Black, Marva Collins, Patricia Seybold, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Marsha Evans, Eileen Collins, Cady Coleman, Mary GrandPre, Frances Bayless, Pamela Frank, Jane Pauley, Florence Henderson, Catherine Callaway, Lesley Seymour, and Jacquelyn Mitchaud.
Most of the autobiographies are 2-6 pages in length.
Before you become too focused on the celebrities, I often found that the people who I had not known about before had even more profound and moving stories to tell.
Some of the key themes that these women address include: encouragement from parents, friends, and mentors; the need to explore and take risks; an emphasis on education; perseverance in the face of setbacks and obstacles; choosing life partners; arranging to have and raise children; and making one's own unique path that fits oneself.
Few of these women felt that they were destined for success. Many would have described themselves as being unsuccessful in important ways as adolescents. The trials they had to overcome are pretty amazing including physical handicaps, spending time in prisoner of war camps, poverty, prejudice, lack of jobs for women, the enormous load of being a mother and a career person, being a single parent, and interrupted education and careers.
Some will quibble that this book would have benefited from more examples of women who are the at-home parents without a "paying" career. There are only two examples in this category, and these are women who have very active volunteer careers.
Clearly, a missed opportunity was to interview more of the parents, siblings, friends, teachers, mentors, and spouses of these women to get a better flavor of what they exuded that allowed them to garner such remarkable support.
These stories will stay with you for the rest of your life. Be sure to repeat them when it will do the most good!
I also encourage you to think about what you can do to be a good role model for the next generation.
When Jane wins, we all win!
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring Stories of Successful Women, April 16, 2001
This review is from: How Jane Won: 55 Successful Women Share How They Grew from Ordinary Girls to Extraordinary Women (Hardcover)
In "See Jane Win", Dr. Sylvia Rimm and Dr. Sara Rimm-Kaufman studied and reported on 1,100 successful women. The women, who had indicated that they were happy with both their home and career lives, filled out survies about their lives. The results, which included such findings as biggest role models, birth orders, schools attended and activities participated in while young, served parents with information on possible ways to raise daughters. The short anecdotes about several survey participants served girls and young women with inspirational mini-biographies about women who had become what they themselves define as successful.
"How Jane Won", subtitled "55 Successful Women Share How They Grew from Ordinary Girls to Extraordinary Women" includes more autobiographies by such women. The book is divided into six sections of careers: the Lawmakers and Adjudicators, the Shatterers of Glass Ceilings, the Healers and Discoverers, the Nurturers, the Artists and Musicians, and the Communicators. Women telling their life stories range from astranauts to homemakers, and include Christina Whitman (Governor of New Jersey), Nydia M. Velazquez (US Congresswoman), Sandra Day O'Connor, Cathleen Black (President of Hearst Magazines), Eileen COllins (NASA Astrnaut and Space Shuttle Commander), Alexa Canady, M.D. (Pediatric Nerosurgeon), Martha Aarons (Flutist with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra), Jane Pauley (Anchor, NBC News and Dateline), Florence Henderson (Brady Bunch actress), and Jacqauleyn Mitchard (bestselling author).
Although one would fear this book would turn into a Chicken Soup for the Feminist Soul, most of the stories do an amazing job of staying on the practical and real side instead of the corny and romantic one. Most of the stories are insprirational yet helpful. Many girls would be inspired by reading about the lives of these successful women, and many women who wish to advance in their own education or career would also find these stories interesting.
One important thing many women in the book point out is how hard it was for them in the beginning of their career, before women had won many of the rights and status we too often take for granted. Cathleen Black, President of Hearst Magazines, writes "When I talk to teenage girls, it's hard for them to imagine that these opportunities didn't always exist. I dont' know that it's real for them. They're skeptical when I tell them they couldn't have gotten a loan or gone to Harvard in my era." Likewise, Katherine Hudson, President and CEO of Brady Corportation, writes, "When I wrote my resume, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. None of the companies were interested in my doing financial work, despite my gruaduatin first in the class. The salary offers were for about half of what the guys in class were being offered. This was in 1968, before affirmative action."
A positive point about "How Jane Won" is that it advoids the materialism found in "See Jane Win". The biggest critique of that book is that women were defined as successful almost exclusively when they held jobs women were previously unable to or when they made a great amount of money. In "How Jane Won", however, the women who share their stories may or not be financially successful, but they are successful because they are happy. Women who hold "traditional" jobs like teachers, nurses, and homemakers are not excluded like they are in most of "See Jane Win", and this sends the important message that girls can and should do whatever makes them happiest, whether that is becoming a nuclear physicist or a street musician.
One critique that can be made of "How Jane Won", however, is its exclusion of "untraditional" family women: women who do not marry at all or who are lesbians. There is one lesbian whose story is included, as well as a few women who never had children, but besides for this the emphasis seems to be that women are only successful when they are not only happy with their work but when they also have a "typical, all-American" family system. It would be nice to see greater diversity in the See Jane Win series, if there are to be any more in the future.
Instead of being overloaded with cheesiness as one might expect, most of "How Jane Won" is full of practical advice and inspiration. Both girls and parents alike will find themselves liking and rereading certain stories they find most relevant to their lives, and this will positively influence many readers. ...
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