I wear my role as a leader in the field of beauty as if it were a badge of honor,  but sometimes I feel like I am a wonder woman trying to juggle it all .  Between career, family, kids and life in general I wonder sometimes if I am on a quest for success or some unattainable perfection.  In  Deborah Spar’s new book Wonder Women:  Sex, Power and the Quest for Perfection, she attempts to address my wonder woman complex. Spar is one of the first women professors at Harvard Business School and now president of Barnard College, Spar has reaped feminism’s rewards. She also sees that there’s more for women to fight for. Using research about gender equality in the workplace as well as recounting her own experiences, Spar outlines a feminism for the 21st century.

Below is an excerpt from the book, addressing the issue:

“Women are still sorely under-represented at the top of the professional pyramid: only 15.2 of the board members of Fortune 500 corporations, 16 percent of partners at the largest law firms, 19 percent of surgeons.  Indeed, there seems to be some sort of odd demographic guillotine hovering between 15 and 20 percent; some force of nature or discrimination that plows women down once they threaten to multiply beyond a token few.”

The challenges that women face in the field today include leadership , the portrayal of women in advertisements and a litany of other things.  But it starts with developing our leadership, challenging the status quo, and having conversations with our peers about the action steps we can take to influence positive change as we strive to rise in the ranks and increase our influence.

I encourage each of you as professionals to look at your individual role and think about what you can do to initiate change to balance the playing field for woman.

Read more about this book on Goodreads. Click here.

References:

Women, Despite Being Leaders, Are Still Not Wonder Women. (2013) Retrieved from wonderwomanthebook.com