Calling all fabulous women!

Are you a bitch? Are you a geisha? Are you invisible? Are you a "guy"? A woman reader would likely reply, "none of the above." Yet I urge the woman reader to think hard about how she is perceived in the workplace. The book The Naked Truth by Margaret Heffernan is a great read. It also explains why these stereotypes exist. The Naked Truth reminds us that while we see an increasing number of women participating meaningfully in the corporate world, men still control it. Despite conscious efforts by many institutions to provide environments that are "women-friendly," and despite the many individuals (men and women alike) who support women’s advancement in the workplace, there is still a lot to be done.

Men originally built the corporate world at a time when women stayed at home, so naturally, it was built for men. While men and women are equal, they’re different, as all human beings are equal despite their differences. Differences do not make one superior over another but when infrastructure is built for one, it’s sure to cause problems for the other. It’s like building infrastructure for horse-drawn carriages and expecting the same infrastructure to work equally well for pedestrians and motor vehicles.

The Naked Truth contains valuable anecdotes of many talented women facing and standing up to traditional biases in the workplace. Margaret takes these experiences and distills them into a few simple principles that one can utilize in managing one’s own career.

The Naked Truth stresses honesty, integrity, and being true to oneself. When speaking to Margaret, I pointed out that these values are not peculiar to women. She acknowledged this but also pointed out that because of the pressure on women to conform to preconceived notions, women often experience greater stress in defending these values in the corporate environment.

The Naked Truth emphasizes financial freedom. The book describes an incident where a woman had to ask her husband permission to buy a drink. Personal preferences aside, I think no adult woman would want to ask permission from anyone to be able to buy a drink. When I asked Margaret about this point, her response was unequivocal. "Women should be able to pay their own way." I agree with her. Margaret also observed that she has seen too many financially independent women who become financially dependent on their husbands, and, without fault on the part of the husbands, slowly lose a lot of self-confidence.

The Naked Truth focuses on how women flourish as entrepreneurs. As heads of their own business, women don’t lose time and energy merely trying to "fit in." That said, it doesn’t mean that all women can or should be entrepreneurs. Women’s success at entrepreneurship merely demonstrates that their talent in business is often overshadowed in the corporate environment.

The Naked Truth encourages women to speak up, particularly with respect to their contributions and achievements. In conventional settings, women are generally not trained to speak up for themselves and are usually expected to intuit others’ needs. Men, on the other hand, are not typically trained this way. This creates a near-natural disadvantage for women in the corporate context. One of the women featured in the book, a director in the mergers and acquisitions group of a software company and mother, writes a list of her work contributions on a weekly basis, a tool she uses during her annual evaluation – an example of an efficient, non-obnoxious way of reminding one’s employer of one’s value.

The Naked Truth discusses social capital, the network through which all types of relationships, including business relationships, can be built. When asked about this, Margaret pointed out that women are great at building social capital but are not so good at spending it. A case in point was when Margaret was looking for a way to get live music into old people’s homes in Boston; Margaret didn’t think of her family doctor in terms of someone who could help her until her husband suggested it.

The Naked Truth also describes how women typically get shut out of the "old boys’ club" and how women can be as competitive as men. Why can men act and work together within the old boys’ network despite competition, while women, who are (a) shut out of the old boys’ club, and (b) equally competitive, don’t actively build their own women’s network? She raised two points that made me think very hard. The first is that women are generally raised to compete against each other for the attention of men, and thus this mode of thinking spills over into the corporate environment. The second is that a successful, professional woman still often finds herself the only woman in a room of high-level executives and this exceptionality can make her feel special.

The charming Margaret, who is incredibly down-to-earth, is a successful businessperson and author who juggles family (a husband and two daughters) with career, like most women today. When asked what advice she would give a daughter upon commencing a business career, she replied that a woman should first figure out what she loves to do and if she hasn’t figured that out yet (which is most likely the case), then she should find a company whose institutional values she shares while she discovers what she loves.

It is not uncommon to hear people tell intelligent women to downplay their intelligence, skills and professional aspirations. I’ve always asked why, when the same traits are so lauded in men. Well, women, you can never be too smart for your own good and I think The Naked Truth is for all the fabulous women out there!