The Naked Truth A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters

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 and the best solutions that women face today. From VPs of Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurs to women just starting their careers, she traces the patterns and themes underlying women's 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 and, yes, it is possible to find success amidst all of this and feel good about it. "Finally! A book that exposes the masculine myths about what it takes to be effective in business and helps women reclaim the relational intelligence we have been taught to ignore. A must-read for all women who want to increase their power and influence in the workplace-especially those who are thinking of leaving because they are tired of the corporate gamesmanship that requires splitting themselves into a 'work me' and a 'home me.'" -Joyce K. Fletcher, professor of management, Simmons School of Management, Boston, Massachusetts Order your copy today!

Margaret Heffernan has been CEO of five different businesses (both old economy and new) in the United States and the United Kingdom. A former producer for the BBC, she has consulted for film and television and has been acknowledged as one of the top industry executives by the Silicon Alley Reporter, Streaming Media, and the Hollywood Reporter. She speaks regularly at industry and business school conferences and has appeared on NPR's Talk of the Nation and Marketplace as well as CNN and CNBC. She is a regular contributor to Real Business and Fast Company magazines.

Preface ix

Participants xiii

Introduction 1

1 Start Smart 6

2 Geishas, Bitches, Guys—and the Invisible Woman 26

3 Balls to the Wall: Toxic Bosses and Hostile Environments 52

4 The Emperor's New Clothes 77

5 Power and Where It Comes From 93

6 Sex, Love, and a Vision for Life 120

7 The Whole Life 139

8 How High Can You Go? 163

9 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do 186

10 The Entrepreneuse 200

11 The Parallel Universe 217

Notes 231

Web Resources 237

Bibliography 241

Acknowledgments 247

The Author 251

Index 253