What Women Really Want: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live (Hardcover)

~ Celinda Lake (Author), Kellyanne Conway (Author), Catherine Whitney (Contributor)
Key Phrases: generational compression, Total Men Women, United States, Social Security (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Women are the most powerful force reshaping the future of America. Stronger than political parties, mightier than religious differences, able to leap cultural schisms in a single bound, women are quietly exerting a unified power to make changes in our culture and in commerce, meeting in the middle to achieve their goals. But they're not using traditional means such as getting together and voting or banging on closed doors to demand equal access. In virtually every arena where American women are causing a sea change, they are bypassing the traditional settings that ignore their needs and are creating parallel circuits, which, in turn, then affect the old standards. Across political, religious, racial, and class differences, this new, vital, female center is heralding the most significant change in American culture in the past century.

Two of the hottest trend-spotters in America -- Celinda Lake, a leading political strategist for the Democratic party and one of the nation's foremost experts on electing women candidates, and Kellyanne Conway, a leading conservative pollster and president and CEO of The Polling Company, INC.™ -- themselves cross the aisle to reveal the ways in which a newly defined, united power base among women is reshaping the state of our nation much more than the two-sided politics of Left and Right. Using the eye-opening results of interviews, focus groups, and polls (three of which were created especially for this book) that they've conducted, Conway and Lake demonstrate how women are getting what they want and need by rejecting outdated traditions and expectations that no longer fit their reality. They are breaking the old rules about when and whether to marry and have children, living fully and equally as singles, and creating flexible, inclusive workplaces that don't sacrifice family or sanity. They are taking charge of the marketplace, controlling $5 trillion annually as the primary purchasers of homes, cars, appliances, and electronics. They are making their mark at ages twenty, forty, sixty, and beyond, drawing strength, inspiration, and intellectual stimulation from other women.

And that's just the beginning. In this smart, exhilarating book, Conway and Lake -- who often fall on opposite sides of the country's most polarizing debates -- come together to seek out what women buy, what they believe, how they work, how they live, what they care about, what they fear, and what they really want. By delving beneath the radioactive, hot-button issues, Lake and Conway discovered common causes with which women are inventing a new age of opportunity -- doing it their way and, in the process, improving life for all Americans.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; First Edition/First Printing edition (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743273826
• ISBN-13: 978-0743273824
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #678,699 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh, original thinking based on actual survey data--welcome to 2005!, November 25, 2005

By	James Lucier (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a professional political analyst myself, I read absolutely everything I can find by Celinda Lake and Kellyanne Conway, whether written separately or together. It takes two top data mavens of opposite political persuasions to sift through hundreds of actual interviews to tell us what the numbers say, today. The two points I found most interesting were the tremendous growth of women-owned businesses (and women business owners) plus the phenomen of the "sandwich generation"--baby boom women dealing with children and their own retirement plans on the one hand but also with the healthcare and financial affairs of aging parents. Today's women face huge family, financial, and career pressures in a way I, as a man, thought I understood but clearly didn't appreciate properly before reading this book. If you are selling a product, planning a political campaign, or worrried aobut how this nation deals with social security and medicare, I think it is well worth your time.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Should Be Named: "Women's Liberation Turns 40", February 10, 2006

By	RicR2 (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This book is filled with fascinating survey data about what women have DONE, especially in just the last decade, but not much about women WANT.
And fascinating facts there are. Two of my favorites are that:

60% of all women aged 40 to 69 are single (!), and

65% of all car purchases are made "directly by women."

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for ALL Business People, July 5, 2006

By	J. V. Crum, III "www.consciousmillionaire.com" (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I went to law school in the early 80's, 47% of my class was women; however, at that juncture, most women were modeling men. What I noticed was they really didn't own their own power as women. They were more like a female version of men. And, in the 80's, that was true in corporate offices as well. Today, that is all changing. Women are finding their own version of Power.

The majority of my market is women - I built my own companies and today I work with small business entrepreneurs who want to create millionaire success while being true to their core values and doing something that brings them a sense of passion and purpose. That fits the woman profile.

I purchased "What Women Really Want" because a highly successful woman friend (entrepreneur/investor) recommended it. This is a true treasure trove - it is filled with information that EVERY business owner or professional who serves women NEEDS to know!

This book has information I haven't found anywhere else - the specifics are almost endless. The theme is clear: women are coming into their own power on their own terms - and they are finding ways to express their own unique selves and needs in every aspect of what they do, from how they live their lives, to how they run their businesses and how they enjoy their relaxation time.

I strongly suggest that if you serve women or just want to know more about women in the 21st Century that you buy this book today.

J V Crum, III
President / Founder
Conscious Millionaire Institute, LLC