Review
“…The Naked Truth is about choice…about taking risks and assessing whether you want that choice enough…then you may be recognised, successful, fulfilled and happy…” (
AccountingWebUK, 9
th August 2005)
“…purports to identify the four types of women who populate office life” (The Guardian, 8th November 2004)
“…Heffernan’s book gives strategies for dealing with toxic bosses and misogynistic environments…” (The Times T2, 2nd November 2004)
“…she (the author) perceptively dissects the nature of power and its source…” (Management Today, November 2004)
“…thought–provoking book …” (Western Daily Press – Bristol, 27 October 2004)
"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. (Sept.) (Publishers Weekly, September 20, 2004)
“…a provocative new business book…aims to offer practical solutions to difficulties women might encounter in the workplace…” (The Daily Telegraph, 12 August 2004)
“…The Naked Truth is about choice…about taking risks and assessing whether you want that choice enough…then you may be recognised, successful, fulfilled and happy…” (AccountingWebUK, 9th August 2005)
“…purports to identify the four types of women who populate office life” (The Guardian, 8th November 2004)
“…Heffernan’s book gives strategies for dealing with toxic bosses and misogynistic environments…” (The Times T2, 2nd November 2004)
“…she (the author) perceptively dissects the nature of power and its source…” (Management Today, November 2004)
“…thought–provoking book …” (Western Daily Press – Bristol, 27 October 2004)
“…a provocative new business book…aims to offer practical solutions to difficulties women might encounter in the workplace…” (The Daily Telegraph, 12 August 2004)
From the Inside Flap
Years after the women’s movement has "transformed" the workplace, working women still find themselves abused, undervalued, and alienated in the business world.
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 that women face today–and the best solutions. From VPs of Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurs to women just starting their careers, she traces the patterns and themes underlying 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–yes, it is possible to find success amidst all of this and feel good about it.
The women interviewed for this book tell how they have overcome obstacles and evolved their own concept of power, crafted a blend of work and life that really does satisfy, designed career paths that do not require the splitting of personal values from work values, and run companies that give the entire business community a different view of how work can be done. They are telling the naked truth about what business is and could be.
