Rethink

Such a good book it was so hard to put down and was really interesting. Thank you for sending me a copy of this book to read.

There are so many "women can't..." barriers and more so the ones we tell ourselves as women and accept when thrust upon us but in reading this book, I am challenged first to change my narrative, the stories I tell myself and also draw inspiration from the women whose stories are shared here.
The greatest takeaway for me was the importance of having a women's circle that is purposeful in uplifting me in my professional growth.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

I was thinking for a while on how stories about women can inspire. They actually do and I like those inspiring stories selected by the author. It is even difficult to come up with one that touched my heart more as every one of them has its charm and learning points. There are many myths around capabilities of genders and many of them are broken by us. This is inspiring!

At a time when the world is reeling from being forced to improvise almost everything on a daily basis, Rethink profiles eleven women, including the author, whose lives and professional careers are prime examples of adaptability that defy entrenched gendered expectations. Invisible barriers to achievement in science, management, finance, and other industries are examined through the lenses of these accomplished women's experiences. Their profiles make for compelling reading and comprise the majority of the text, which is its strength. Notable reading frustrations include points of view and blanket statements that reinforce a narrow focus on a hetero, privileged, Anglo gender binary as the presumptive frame of reference. The author's advice leans heavily toward putting the burden of change on women rather than on strategies for systemic changes to eliminate the institutionalized career blockages formed from rampant sexism, misogyny, LGBTQUIA-phobia, and racism that hinder women from reaching the highest levels of academic and professional achievement—at least until Delora Tyler's feature in the “Myth 9” chapter. There, toward the end of the book is where Rethink explicitly acknowledges specific layers of codified oppression and exclusion in the workplace. Unfortunately, the concluding remarks undercut that refreshing candor by swinging back toward burdening the individual for cultural failings with this statement:

“Like Delora, African American women entrepreneurs must be more self-confident and build their resilience.”

The underlying assumption that Black women in particular, and girls and women in general, are inherently lacking in self-confidence and resilience is the fundamental weakness in this otherwise exceptional collection of assorted blueprints for success and effective leadership with an emphasis on the importance of company culture. ÷

Dr. Simon is a corporate anthropologist and those critical thinking and observational strengths provide narrative stability and anchor the rational layering of ideas. She refers to credible studies that quantitatively confirm the effective leadership of female CEOs for companies that consistently perform as well or better than those headed by men. It seems like a missed opportunity to connect, or at least acknowledge, these facts with the themes discussed in Reviving Ophelia and other works that track the ways in which society undercuts and warps girls' and women's self-actualization, which starts as being comparable to boys'. ÷

A foreword; three parts that layout the intention, eleven common myths about women in the workplace, a conclusion that speculates about future myths; and resources, discussion questions, and a list of organizations, plus acknowledgments [sic], and an index offer readers inspiration, validation, motivation, practical strategies, and tools to initiate or reignite pursuit of their most ambitious professional goals. Rethink is a call to action for the New Year.

Rethink is a highly engaging examination of the many challenges women face in the quest to break through the glass ceiling in traditionally male-dominated industries. In my opinion, one of the largest strengths of this book was how Dr. Simon intertwined the compelling personal profiles and stories of the eleven women who are working to bust some of the prevailing myths against women leaders and innovators alongside seamlessly integrated and relevant statistics and historical facts to back up all of her points and provide context of how opportunities in the workplace for women have grown over time, yet still require sustained effort to move towards a truly equitable larger work culture. I think it’s crucial to simultaneously acknowledge remaining gender equality barriers, yet also celebrate how far women have come in the professional sphere, and I felt that this book balanced both of these aspects very well.

I particularly enjoyed the diversity of business-rooted industries Andi sampled from to choose the women she highlighted, from geoscience to aerospace to fashion to IT to law. One thing I would have loved to hear a bit more about is the additional challenges faced by BIPOC women, but I did feel the chapter featuring Delora Tyler, a Black woman who worked at the Detroit News in the ‘70s before setting out to create her own marketing business, was very well-done and did focus in on and reflect on a number of these issues which was great to see.

Ultimately, as a current undergrad who is majoring in medical anthropology and planning to enter a STEM field, I really enjoyed seeing everything presented through a very holistic, anthropology-based lens and found all the stories of these women setting positive examples and overcoming obstacles with often unconventional methods to be so inspiring. Also, prior to picking up this book, I did not actually know anything about the role of a corporate anthropologist, so I truly enjoyed learning about this career through Andi’s own experiences as presented here and definitely think that especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, as society rearranges and stagnant models of business are deemed out of touch in the coming decades, that it will be more important than ever for all industries to incorporate more nuanced, anthropological strategies that work to promote equality in the workplace. Overall, this book contains many important messages and I would definitely recommend. Personally, I am so excited in the coming years as I complete my next degrees and eventually enter the workforce to do my own part to help continue to break down barriers, prove outdated and inaccurate gender myths wrong, and write the next chapter of my own story, and tales like the ones in this book have been instrumental in influencing me to seek out mentors and set these goals!

Andi Simon takes an anthropologist's approach to examining how social mythologies have structured societal expectations relating to women in business. Each chapter follows a common structure: social history and data relating to the chapter's "Myth," the story of a woman who has succeeded in business in contravention of the Myth, and the author's summary and conclusion (which she cleverly calls the "From the Observation Deck"). When I originally saw the reference to "Myths" in the Table of Contents, my thoughts turned to cliches and mindless beliefs ("girls aren't good at math"), but Simon isn't writing about cliches. Her "Myths" are stories and mythologies that have been ingrained in our culture over time. These stories (of, say, men succeeding in investing decisions) allow society to adopt the idea that the story elements are immutable (eg, since the stories aren't of *women* succeeding in investing decisions, women must not be good investors), and the stories establish a myth. What I love about Simon's thesis is that the way to overcome mythologies—these ingrained stories—is to tell new stories and to change the mythologies. In other words, tell the stories of how women succeed. The more of these stories that are told, the more of these stories we help write...the more these stories will stop being seen as anomalies and will become the new story template.

Recommended for women living or launching their own business success stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Greenleaf Book Group for providing a copy of this book for review purposes.

Whenever I search for books about women's issues (feminism, the presence of women in different fields, etc...), I look for something I have not read before. That is why Rethink, by Andi Simon, caught my attention so easily. And I was not wrong in thinking this book was different from other's I had read.
The topic of women trying to succeed in traditionally male spaces is one I am passionate about since I can relate to it. The stories we have in this book are not necessarily ones I can relate to myself, but I can see many readers enjoying reading about all these incredible women whether they relate to them or not. I loved the variety in the examples shown. Often times, we kind of get the same story over and over again. However, in this book, each story had its own personality, same as the women mentioned.
I appreciate how at the end of the book, the author gives us a list of questions to really try to understand why we liked or disliked this book, which part of it spoke to us the most, etc... I think it is a brilliant way to sort of communicate with the reader.
As someone who is often asked about this type of book, I can already think of a group of people I would recommend it to.

I found Rethink when I desperately needed a reminder to continue forward with my goals. Rethink gives great drive for women trying to break through those traditional business roles, and go above the "glass ceiling."