When Work Doesn't Work Anymore: Women, Work, and Identity (Paperback)

~ Elizabeth Perle Mckenna (Author) "I WAS RAISED TO ACHIEVE, WHICH MAKES me a woman of my times..." (more)
Key Phrases: inner hand, success culture, conventional success, Anna Quindlen, Juliet Schor, Gloria Steinem (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Why aren't career women happy? A publishing executive disputes the worth of traditional male ideas of success.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

An accurate, though imperfectly analyzed, account of an unfinished revolution. After 18 years of driven work (serving as associate publisher of Bantam and publisher of William Morrow and other houses), McKenna walked into her boss's office and quit her job. She was successful according to all the conventional measures of career success. But she was miserable. Feeling she had to choose between her work and her life, she chose her life. McKenna convincingly argues that the women's movement opened up the world of work to women but didn't change a culture hostile to the realities of women's lives. Even though women are pressured, like men, to identify completely with work and sacrifice everything to it, they are still expected to succeed on traditionally feminine terms--to marry, to have children, to be perfect wives and mothers. Neither the workplace nor the larger society has done much either to alleviate those expectations or to help women live up to them. McKenna interviews other women about their work experiences and analyzes their stories along with her own. Part self-help book, part social criticism, part feminist manifesto, this volume drags at points; it's repetitive, and it's also weakened by her continued reliance on the notion that the values of the work world--i.e., competition, success as defined by money and status, etc.--are somehow at odds with ``women's values''--cooperation, caring, relationships, etc. It's a familiar idea, but one that has inspired much controversy and needs to be argued carefully or approached critically, not taken as a given. After all, especially in this era of huge conglomerates and a bottom-line business mentality, many men are frustrated with their jobs for some of the same reasons that McKenna was. For all its theoretical fuzziness and scattered organization, much of McKenna's analysis is sound--and timely. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Delta (August 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385317980
• ISBN-13: 978-0385317986
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,094,468 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for female executives, November 20, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

As an executive coach and psychologist, I have provided this book to several of my clients. The overwhelming feedback is positive. Many have changed their lives (or at least their perspectives about work) as a result of further exploring the themes in this text. Most comment -- "I am not alone. Many people feel the way I feel." This book should be a business best seller. My hats off to the author for her research.

29 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This Book Doesn't Really Work Either, July 6, 2000

By A Customer

As I read this book, it occurred to me that Ms. McKenna seems only to be talking to women like herself who apparently come from upper class, successful families, and who have had great educations and connections to hit the ground running with promising, fast-track jobs. Had she been an immigrant, or someone from a less privileged background, she may have been a little less whiney. I was annoyed with paragraph after paragrph of "we" grew up believing this, and "we" went to school and learned that, and "we" entered the work force and accomplished this. I'm about the same age as McKenna and female, and that sure wasn't my experience. After working my way through college in a paper mill, I finally got a job-- slinging hash! So when I finally landed a job in New York City and started my own meteoric rise, I was probably a little more mercenary. I was in it for the money. PERIOD. I had no illusions about getting satisfaction for my soul with (hello?) corporate life! McKenna just seems naive to me. A poor little rich girl.

At the risk of sounding like a 60s radical, doesn't she know that corporations --and our capitalistic society-- is based on the exploitation of people and other organizations? Of course you're unhappy at the end of the day! My advice: Make as much money as you can, then get out before they steal your soul!

Finally, and one of my biggest issues with this book, is-- Why does she target this book & her ideas toward women? Men can feel the same dissatisfaction that the author does, and would probably like to chuck it all as much as she does. They just don't whine about it as much as McKenna. She does the battle for equality of the sexes a disservice by defining this as a "women's problem" and by moaning that corporate life is only for men with wives who will keep the home fires burning.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Changing, December 16, 2000

By A Customer

I knew something was wrong - for years I "played the game" in Corporate America, but it was no longer enough. I read McKenna's book one Friday night...there it was in black & white...the validation of all I was feeling. That weekend I mourned the loss of a life that had become all-consuming, and began the journey to build a better life. It took 4 months and much soul searching, but I resigned from my high powered, Fortune 500 company position, and am now well on my way to the life I always dreamed about. I've sent copies of the book to all my stressed-out, "there must be a better way" girlfriends in Corporate America. It's a must read if you've ever wondered "at what price, success?"