When Women Lead by Julia Boorstin
“Investing in women had a multiplier effect on their families and achieved the most dramatic results for a nation's economic and public health outcomes.”
3 Main Messages:
There are many incredible female leaders whose stories should be shared and celebrated.
As relative outsiders, women often succeed because they can see the forest, while those on the inside can only see the trees
To be successful is to be flexible, innovative, scrappy and thick-skinned
After having recently read many books about women’s struggles in leadership, women having been discounted from medical and scientific research, and of the everyday sexism and misogyny that is ingrained and inherent in our culture, this book was a beacon of light! It shares success story after success story and highlights when and why women have triumphed. I was elevated, impressed and inspired.
Julia Boorstin interviewed many successful women in order to retell their incredible stories and share the reasons behind their success. A golden threaded theme weaving them together is that many of these women were driven by a purpose beyond their profits: they saw an opportunity to make the world a better place and then stepped into that space.
The book is written in three parts, each of which is dense with examples and stories of women who saw opportunities in their environments to make life easier for others and to profit almost as a byproduct of making these improvements. From Gail Becker, whose gluten free pizza company was driven by a need to make her son included, to Whitney Wolfe-Herd, who set up Bumble in order to create a safe space for women to date online, to Jennifer Hyman, who set up Rent The Runway in order to cut down on extravagant spending, common theft and provide easy access to luxury garments - each of these women at one point found themselves on the edges of the system and disadvantaged in some way. From their vantage point at the periphery, they were each able to envisage a different way of working - and everyone benefitted as a result.
The ‘dropped curb’ effect is nothing new: the idea that a curb which is dropped to benefit wheelchair users also benefits those with pushchairs, suitcases, delivery carts and weak knees. When we make changes to include those on the edges of society, everyone benefits. I was struck by the fact that this was a metaphor for every story in this book..
Boorstin suggests that women are sometimes more likely to find solutions and business ideas as a result of their empathy and gratitude, which help them to solve bigger problems. She writes at length about the disadvantages women entrepreneurs face when gaining access to venture capital - the figures are quite shocking but sadly not surprising. And so, having succeeded in spite of these odds, each of the women's examples shared are utterly remarkable.
There are familiar names amongst the success stories, like Reese Witherspoon who set up Hello Sunshine to promote female authors, film makers and actors, and Gwyneth Paltrow who established GOOP to share tips, trends and products which she and her friends were already doing on an unofficial basis. I also enjoyed learning about innovative women who have set up a whole range of successful businesses - all, again, managing to make profits, while serving a greater purpose.
There is also a study into the success of global female leaders who responded well during Covid-19 crisis. She applauds their empathetic and flexible approach, valuing lives over jobs. However, the true findings are that it was the people who lived in countries which elected women, who were more likely to respond well to lock downs and restrictions - which is what lowered the death toll in those countries. Food for thought!
The reasons given for the many success stories told here are in the approach of these female leaders. Boorstin quoted multiple research projects from companies including Korn Ferry and McKinsey, which have found that female leaders are more likely to be collaborative, empathetic, flexible and interactive, with a growth mindset, while being less hierarchical. This again feeds into the notion that they are therefore more able to see potential blind spots and opportunities.
It is a book of hope, certainly, and of celebration, but also one which pinpoints how future leaders need to be in order to succeed. What is clear is that when women lead everyone benefits. Surely then we need to be finding more opportunities for them to do so!
