ABC News’ Claire Shipman has picked an odd moment to publish a book advising working women to put in fewer hours at the job, said Amy Reiter in Salon.com. Shipman and her co-author, BBC News anchor Katty Kay, claim in Womenomics that women are better served when they sometimes turn down promotions and the 60-hour workweeks that can go with them. Women value balance in their lives more than men do, Shipman says, and have gained the leverage to demand it, even during a recession. Women’s “focus on compromise and aversion to risk” are now seen as strengths, she wrote in ABCnews.com. “Companies with more senior female managers make more money.”
Shipman acknowledges that not every working woman can “storm into her CEO’s office and say, ‘I need to be home at 3 o’clock.’” The Good Morning America correspondent says the purpose of Womenomics is to inform women who want more time outside of the job that they’re not alone, and that some employers are learning to provide that balance. If you’re a woman whose boss isn’t so enlightened, Shipman says, there are steps you can take on your own—such as simply doing less. “High-achieving women tend to be perfectionists, and that’s one of the things that can hold us back,” she says. “Most of the time, good enough really is good enough.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Ottawa climate talks: can global plastic problem be solved?In the spotlight Nations aim to draft world's first treaty on plastic pollution, but resistance from oil- and gas-producing countries could limit scope
-
Netherlands split on WFH for sex workersSpeed Read Councils concerned over 'nuisance' of at-home sex work, but others say changes will curb underground sex trade
-
'He adored Trump, and then rejected him'Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”