The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters [Hardcover]

Margaret A. Heffernan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2004

In this provocative book, Margaret Heffernan, former CEO and Fast Company contributor, fuses her own experience with that of hundreds of women to identify the biggest challenges and the best solutions that women face today. From VPs of Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurs to women just starting their careers, she traces the patterns and themes underlying women's power, choices, love, sex, money, and many other vital topics for working women. Without sugar-coating the facts, preaching, or oversimplifying, she offers solutions and shares the truth about the working world: women's choices are limited, you can't have it all, women do work differently from men and, yes, it is possible to find success amidst all of this and feel good about it.

"Finally! A book that exposes the masculine myths about what it takes to be effective in business and helps women reclaim the relational intelligence we have been taught to ignore. A must-read for all women who want to increase their power and influence in the workplace—especially those who are thinking of leaving because they are tired of the corporate gamesmanship that requires splitting themselves into a 'work me' and a 'home me.'"
—Joyce K. Fletcher, professor of management, Simmons School of Management, Boston, Massachusetts

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I never wanted to work in business," writes Heffernan. Twenty years after expressing that sentiment, as CEO of a technology company, she found herself "having the time of my life" and wondered whether she had "completely lost my mind? Or sold my soul?" Heffernan sees "women creating a new business order that places values at the heart of business, takes sustainability seriously, and recognizes that business is and always will be emotional." Eleven chapters are peppered with her own illustrative anecdotes and insights plus those of 63 career women representing a wide variety of positions and professions. These contain instructive descriptions of potential pitfalls and urgent advice, each one ending with a list of "Travel Thoughts" to keep in mind. Readers are told how to climb the corporate ladder, maintain a female identity, navigate toxic environments, see through common fallacies, acquire power, balance work with personal life, break into top management, assert autonomy, strike out on their own and reinvent a "parallel universe" of humanitarian alternatives. Nothing is new or told in a fresh way, but Heffernan delivers the catalogue of female careerist frustration succinctly and sympathetically.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This book is fresh, honest, and compelling--if only for the dozens of women (and some men!) whose lives and thoughts are excerpted here. What Heffernan--an ex-CEO, consultant, speaker, and former BBC television producer--has compiled is the story of women in corporate America today, who, despite all the hype and hyperbole, have not progressed as far and as fast as has been predicted. Women hold 8 percent of executive titles and 9.9 percent of line positions: statistics revealing the true state of affairs. Frankly autobiographical, the author also shares the experiences of others; specific issues include stereotyping (calling someone a "geisha," "bitch," "guy," or just plain "invisible"), toxic bosses and hostile environments, power, a well-balanced and whole life, exits, career paths, and, ultimately, becoming an internal change agent. There is much good advice (remember to "leave smart") and much to think about, including provocative questions at each chapter's end called "Travel Thoughts." Reassurance--and a reaffirmation. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (September 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078797143X
• ISBN-13: 978-0787971434
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,124,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MARGARET HEFFERNAN is an entrepreneur, Chief Executive and author. She was born in Texas, raised in Holland and educated at Cambridge University. She worked in BBC Radio for five years where she wrote, directed, produced and commissioned dozens of documentaries and dramas. As a television producer, she made documentary films for Timewatch, Arena, and Newsnight. She was one of the producers of Out of the Doll's House, the prize-winning documentary series about the history of women in the twentieth century. She designed and executive produced a thirteen part series on The French Revolution for the BBC and A&E. The series featured, among others, Alan Rickman, Alfred Molina, Janet Suzman, Simon Callow and Jim Broadbent and introduced both historian Simon Schama and playwright Peter Barnes to British television. She also produced music videos with Virgin Records and the London Chamber Orchestra to raise attention and funds for Unicef's Lebanese fund.

Leaving the BBC, she ran the trade association IPPA, which represented the interests of independent film and television producers and was once described by the Financial Times as "the most formidable lobbying organization in England."

In 1994, she returned to the United States where she worked on public affair campaigns in Massachusetts and with software companies trying to break into multimedia. She developed interactive multimedia products with Peter Lynch, Tom Peters, Standard & Poors and The Learning Company. She then joined CMGI where she ran, bought and sold leading Internet businesses, serving as Chief Executive Officer for InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and iCAST Corporation. She was named one of the Internet's Top 100 by Silicon Alley Reporter in 1999, one of the Top 25 by Streaming Media magazine and one of the Top 100 Media Executives by The Hollywood Reporter. Her "Tear Down the Wall" campaign against AOL won the 2001 Silver SABRE award for public relations.

In 2004, Margaret published THE NAKED TRUTH: A Working Woman's Manifesto about Business and What Really Matters (Jossey-Bass) and in 2007 she brought out WOMEN ON TOP: How Female Entrepreneurs are Changing the Rules for Business Success. She is Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College in Boston and Executive in Residence at Babson College. She sits on the Council of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the UK as well as one the boards of several private companies. Margaret blogs for the Huffington Post and BNET and writes for Fast Company, Real Business, MORE, and other magazines around the world. She was recently featured on television in The Secret Millionaire and on radio in Changing the Rules. She is married with two children.

Copyright 2006-2010.
All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The ugly truth about gender relations in the office, January 21, 2005

By 

Diane K. Danielson "Principal Consultant, DKD... (Cohasset, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters (Hardcover)

Margaret Heffernan has never been afraid to talk about the ugliness that can happen for women in Corporate America. Her new book is no different. It brings up almost every important issue for women trying to climb the traditional corporate ladder. In some cases she offers solutions, either from her own experience and research, or through the shared stories of women she interviewed for the book.

Two things in particular in the book stuck with me. In one section she discusses women and their "relationship" with work. I really liked the use of that word, "relationship." Because I do have a relationship with my work, just like I have a relationship with the people in my life or with money. (I had never really thought about it in that way before.) The second item that struck me was after I read one woman's description of something very sexist that happened in the workplace, I expected the next line to say, "that was ten years ago." Instead, the line was "that was in 2004." I think we need reminding that not everything has changed, and in fact, anything going on now is even worse than ten years ago, because it's 2005, and we all (including the boys) know better.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for working women in any job, October 7, 2004

By 

Amy L. Kendall (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters (Hardcover)

Regardless of your career, your career aspirations, your status in the job market, or your status in life, READ THIS BOOK. The author pinpoints those vague, somewhat ambiguous feelings we have all had at our job, affirms that we aren't going crazy, and provides concrete and helpful examples of how to deal with a variety of situations. Most of all, this book gave me hope that there is hope to find a respectful, honest and dynamic place of business that will help me be me.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, April 18, 2005

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters (Hardcover)

Author and executive Margaret Heffernan fearlessly declares that decades of advice telling business women to act like men, follow traditional rules and cleave to heartless stereotypes are wrong. Breathe a sigh of relief. It's not you; "It's the system, stupid!" In her eyes, the business world inherently does not welcome, respect or value women. Refreshingly, instead of blaming women, the author conveys the advice of hundreds of female survey respondents who say men hold the aces in the business world and don't want to share. Honest, funny and sometimes disconcerting, she offers advice, inspiring examples and helpful stories. She explains how to find or create a humane, cooperative, supportive workplace that fits your principles - and how to make a realistic appraisal if you are at the change-it-or-quit stage. The one shortcoming is the author's absolute unstated assumption that women are innately, inevitably more cooperative, honest and caring than men. This stereotype is a two-edged sword, wounding those men who do have sound values, and reinforcing the typecasting that women ought to be sweet and nurturing because it's in their genes. That aside, we recommend Heffernan's clear view of the hurdles that block a woman's path to business success and work-life balance. She confronts painful realities and adapts them, or adapts to them, even if in nontraditional ways. If you have to be one person at work and someone different at home, her dynamic vision can help you pull it all together.