Business Books

By Andrea Sachs

Are women completely clueless in business? You might think so, given the number of career-advice books being written by and for women. "My first reaction is that this is incredibly discriminatory," says Jackie Wilbur, the director of M.B.A. career development at the MIT Sloan School of Management. "But as you think about this more, of course women have very distinct issues. It could be a tremendous service to create career guides that talk them through the acculturation process into corporate America."

The publishing industry is banking on that. Will Weisser, associate publisher of Portfolio, Penguin's business imprint, says that business-advice books written by men inevitably reflect a masculine approach. "Women in business are looking for something that speaks to their own experience." The success of Basic Black, Hearst Magazines president Cathie Black's best-selling 2007 advice book and memoir, paved the way for three provocative career guides for women, by women.

Bold but never naked ambition is the animating force of Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics from a Woman at the Top (Ballantine), the audacious book by Nina DiSesa, chairman of the flagship New York City office of the advertising agency McCann Erickson. She lets out a war whoop, intent on "breaking down the barriers of that impenetrable bastion of male arrogance and supremacy: 'the boys club.'" One weapon, she confides, is "the Art of S&M (Seduction and Manipulation)." One of DiSesa's guiding principles, however, is, "Don't confuse seduction with sex (one is a brilliant business tactic; the other isn't)." Her other rules could be just as useful to men: "Always 'read' the room (you're less likely to step in s___); don't wallow in decision anxiety (it makes you look weak)." DiSesa even suggests that women be more like men--"decisive, focused, and willing to take risks"--but believes that they can do it without losing any of their "wonderfully unique 'female' skills."

An appreciation for the traditional female attributes in the office is just about the only thing that DiSesa's book has in common with The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear, by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio (Broadway). With its comparatively prim language and earnest encouragements, The Girl's Guide is like chick-lit for M.B.A.s: "You've figured out where you are. And realized that you're not satisfied. Of course, you're not. Ambitious girls never are." This book is pitched to a younger audience than DiSesa's, which speaks to the more seasoned and frustrated businesswoman. The Girl's Guide is best for female neophytes, who will welcome its empowering patter: "Don't accept that you are the girl who never gets what she wants. Instead, become the girl who makes it happen for herself." Friedman and Yorio are generally less concerned with closing the gender gap (women earn 77-c- for every $1 earned by men) than with inspiring readers to transcend it. They praise a career coach who tells them, "By valuing our innate strengths of connection, nurturing, intuition, and empathy, we can reinvent what our impact and contribution is in our work."

Not as much softness in Ask for It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want (Bantam) by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever. "We know that this is true--that women don't ask for what they want and need, and suffer severe consequences as a result." They are particularly tenacious about curing the common female failure to negotiate salaries, which they warn is "outrageously expensive for women." The book offers a four-phase program to toughen up women to negotiate on their own behalf. Babcock, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon, bases her recommendations on years of research into women's negotiating habits. But at times the authors make assertive negotiation seem like a magic wand.

However important, assertiveness alone won't get anyone into the corner office. These guides are useful armor for the long slog to the top, but women, be advised: there are plenty of books by authors with last names like Gates and Iacocca filled with the secrets of male success. They're just not labeled that way.