women and leadership: real lives, real lessons

A powerful call-to-action for gender equity that offers 10 key lessons for women aspiring to a leadership role--be it in politics, business, law, or their local community.

Featuring words of wisdom from female leaders like Hillary Clinton and Theresa May, this empowering study reads like a You Are a Badass volume on world leadership.

Women make up fewer than 10% of national leaders worldwide. Behind this eye-opening statistic lies a pattern of unequal access to power. Through conversations with some of the world’s most powerful and interesting women--including Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christine Lagarde, Michelle Bachelet, and Theresa May--Women and Leadership explores gender bias and asks why there aren’t more women in leadership roles.

Speaking honestly and freely, these women talk about having their ideas stolen by male colleagues, what it’s like to be called fat or a slut in the media, and what things they wish they had done differently. The stories they tell reveal vividly how gender and sexism affect perceptions of women as leaders. Using current research as a starting point, Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala--both political leaders in their own countries--analyze the lived experiences of these women leaders. The result is a rare insight into life as a leader and a powerful call to arms for women everywhere.

Julia Gillard was the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 2010 to 2013. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is Director-General of the World Trade Organization. She was Nigeria’s Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2015, and Foreign Minister in 2006. She was Managing Director of the World Bank from 2007 to 2011, overseeing South Asia, Europe, Central Asia, and Africa. She is the author of Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons from Nigeria (MIT Press).