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Rating: 
Summary: You Go, Girl
Review: "Parents can learn how to counter the negative forces and give their girls a platform to succeed, according to "See Jane Win," a new book by Sylvia Rimm, a correspondent for NBC's Today show. Joined by her two daughters, both accomplished women, Rimm conducted a survey of 1,236 women nationwide considered to have sucessful and satisfying professional careers. She also conducted in-depth interviews with several high-achieving women whose stories are quite compelling. The book is a fascinating look at why people become who they are. Parents will take away many practical tips and good advice on how to encourage their daughters to aim high.
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Summary: Helpful Hints for Being a Better Father to Your Daughter
Review: As a father of a 14 year old daughter, I am always looking for ways to be more helpful to her. As you can imagine, my helpful ideas are not always well received despite my best intentions. I was delighted to see this quantitative characterization of the circumstances that led to the maturation of successful, happy women. I read with equal enthusiasm the parts for fathers and mothers, and have shared key aspects of this book with both my wife and daughter. As someone who believes in high standards, I was relieved to find that that was a good thing to do (whew!), and learned some new ways to provide those high standards in more supportive and comfortable ways for my daughter. Casual conversations usually do not keep my attention for long, but this book taught me that these are important to my daughter. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much our relationship improved when I put more effort and attention into these occasions. Perhaps the biggest (happy) surprise was to see how much longer my daughter works on her homework than these hard-working, successful women did when they were young. I felt much more relaxed about my daughter's prospects, as a result. Usually books about parenting leave me feeling more uncomfortable than when I started. But not this one! On the negative side, I found two important weaknesses in the book. The authors kindly provide a nice summary in the beginning. However, the summary doesn't quite capture the lessons in the book in the same way that the advice and stories in the chapters do. Secondly, a better methodology for this study would have been to equally study women who had unhappy lives with successful careers and women with happy lives and unsuccessful careers to see what is truly different about the rearing of those who are both happy and successful. Perhaps there will be a second book that will develop that point. In the meantime, I recommend this book to everyone who cares about young women's happiness, including the young women themselves. You are bound to pick up some self-confidence about what you are doing right, and some ideas for how to improve where you may not be. You can do it!
Rating: 
Summary: DISAPPOINTING
Review: Having a 14 year old daughter, I am always looking for ways to be more helpful to her. As you can imagine, my helpful ideas are not always well received despite my best intentions. I was delighted to see this quantitative characterization of how successful, happy women arrived. I read with equal enthusiasm the parts for fathers and mothers, and intend to share this book with both my wife and daughter. As someone who believes in high standards, I was relieved to find that that was a good thing to do, and learned some new ways to provide those high standards in more supportive and comfortable ways for my daughter. Casual conversations usually do not keep my attention for long, but this book taught me that these are important to my daughter. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much our relationship improved when I put more effort and attention into these occasions. Perhaps the biggest surprise was to see how much longer my daughter works on her homework than these hard-working, successful women did when they were young. I felt much more relaxed about my daughter's prospects, as a result. On the negative side, I found two important weaknesses in the book. The authors kindly provide a nice summary in the beginning. However, the summary doesn't quite capture the lessons in the book in the same way that the advice and stories in the chapters do. Secondly, a better methodology for this study would have been to equally study women who had unhappy lives with successful careers and women with happy lives and unsuccessful careers to see what is truly different about those who are both happy and successful. Perhaps there will be a second book that will develop that point. In the meantime, I recommend this book to everyone who cares about young women's happiness, including the young women themselves. You are bound to pick up some self-confidence about what you are doing right, and some ideas for how to improve where you may not be.
Rating:
Summary: A Useful Guide for Fathers of Daughters
Review: Having a 14 year old daughter, I am always looking for ways to be more helpful to her. As you can imagine, my helpful ideas are not always well received despite my best intentions. I was delighted to see this quantitative characterization of how successful, happy women arrived. I read with equal enthusiasm the parts for fathers and mothers, and intend to share this book with both my wife and daughter. As someone who believes in high standards, I was relieved to find that that was a good thing to do, and learned some new ways to provide those high standards in more supportive and comfortable ways for my daughter. Casual conversations usually do not keep my attention for long, but this book taught me that these are important to my daughter. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much our relationship improved when I put more effort and attention into these occasions. Perhaps the biggest surprise was to see how much longer my daughter works on her homework than these hard-working, successful women did when they were young. I felt much more relaxed about my daughter's prospects, as a result. On the negative side, I found two important weaknesses in the book. The authors kindly provide a nice summary in the beginning. However, the summary doesn't quite capture the lessons in the book in the same way that the advice and stories in the chapters do. Secondly, a better methodology for this study would have been to equally study women who had unhappy lives with successful careers and women with happy lives and unsuccessful careers to see what is truly different about those who are both happy and successful. Perhaps there will be a second book that will develop that point. In the meantime, I recommend this book to everyone who cares about young women's happiness, including the young women themselves. You are bound to pick up some self-confidence about what you are doing right, and some ideas for how to improve where you may not be.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating book --with one caveat
Review: If the word "perhaps" didn't exist, Dr. Rimm could never have written this book. She appears to have reached the conclusions and then decided to interpret each case to fit. Her very definition of success is awfully elastic, ranging from highly driven careerists, a few who appear to have blundered their way to success, and an especially vapid TV anchor. The data collection itself is suspect, as she seems not even to have requested transcripts and report cards from her interviewees, but instead relied on their own reporting of events which could be as much as 50 or 60 years in the past. There is a slight suggestion she may have conducted secondary interviews with the mothers of a few of her interviewees. Finally, the entire book drips disdain for both homemakers and women in "traditionally female" jobs, which is not particularly helpful and frequently very off-putting, even for those not included in those categories. The advice found here is very basic and more readily found in other books. Look elsewhere for it, and save yourself the headache.
Rating:
Summary: Define success.
Review: My one disappointment with this book is that while it purports to be about successful women, it is primarily about women with successful careers. While the two are certainly not mutually exclusive, they are not the same either.
I believe that young women (in which category I consider myself) today get conflicting messages. We are told that in order to be successful, we must be mothers, wives, and friends, all while managing a successful career. At the same time, we are told that in order to be a successful career woman, mother, wife, friend, etc., that part of our life must be placed ahead of all other concerns. A manic life spent juggling with one persona always in the air is not my idea of success, but I think that it may be fairly typical of "successful" women. I would have liked to read more in this book about how to help young girls deal with these conflicting roles in order to be truly successful.
I enjoyed this book. I have two daughters of my own and look forward to guiding them toward adulthood with a positive attitude and the confidence in themselves needed to be successful. Many of the concepts discussed in this book are ones which we are dealing with already. I reluctantly let her take dance lessons this year because the other three-year-olds at daycare where taking them and she didn't want to be left out. However, I'm taking off two hours of work every week to take her and those same friends to the library for story time. The more I read and observe, the more I believe that successful parenting of girls or boys is all about balance.
The format of Rimm's book lends itself to reading by older girls who may be interested in the life stories of women who have been where they are. Chances are they will see some of themselves in some of these case histories.
One powerful fact I appreciated in reading See Jane Win is that success has little to do with money or social position or going to the "right" school. Having chosen to raise our daughter in a small town, I have been concerned about the lack of choices in education. Many of these women came out of adverse family situations. I guess the central point I got from this book was one I already had: Believe in your kids and teach them to believe in themselves.
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Summary: Success and the Adolescent Girl
Review: Since the feminist movement began over thirty years ago, women have been fighting to reconcile their personal lives with their professional aspirations. Although the movement signaled the public awakening to the increase of women working outside the home, not since that time have researchers distinctly explored the true effects of this radical social change in America. Dr. Rimm and her daughters have compiled a groundbreaking quantitative analysis of over 1000 women in various fields. While initially intending to study only women who have achieved success in the traditionally male-dominated fields, ie. law and medicine, they expanded their focus to include women who reported a high level of satisfaction and fulfillment in both their personal and professional lives and are employed in a traditionally female-dominated field. Underlying this shift in focus was the outcry from these women who were insistent that they be represented and symbolic of the choice that the feminist movement inherently supported as women began to reprioritize their lives, whether out of necessity or not. Interestingly enough, this additional criterion for satisfaction ended up excluding many of the women in the typically male-dominated fields who were not happy, often due to long hours at work, which attributed to their dissatisfaction at home. Categorizing the various careers of the participants into five distinct areas; the power brokers, communicators, healers and discoverers, artists and musicians, and the nurturers, Dr. Rimm provides and effective study by comparing and contrasting the life paths, paying special attention to the childhood and adolescence of these women. By zoning in on specific attributes of these time periods, she takes into consideration what effect the following have had on the motivation and aptitude of women who have gone on to become high achievers who are emotionally fulfilled to boot: which parent the women identified with, subjects they excelled in, did they experience a decline in proficiency in math and science when they reached middle school, type of school attended (private, parochial or public) and involvement in extracurricular activities. Despite differences among the groups concerning these elements of their cognitive and social development, most of the women who participated identified with the same descriptors of themselves growing up: most were labeled brainy, independent and creative by their peers and families, and as such tended to view themselves in the same way. Incredibly insightful and helpful to parents and educators alike, See Jane Run does more than emit findings. Biographical stories of a handful of the women who participated are inspiring and discouraging at the same time. Especially for adolescent girls these stories can act as powerful reminders that the glass ceiling still exists, but as a result of such pioneers as Rabbi Miriam Kane and Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Ana Casa, the term "male-dominated" almost seems prehistoric. In addition, Dr. Rimm has highlighted twenty guidelines for guiding girls to success in relation to twenty corresponding research findings ranging from setting high expectations for girls to helping them to embrace the loneliness they may feel in adolescence (it helps to build the resilience they will need in future careers where they may be one of few women). I would definitely recommend this book to parents and educators, but especially to young women who can always be reminded of the heights to which they can soar.
Rating:
Summary: For fathers of daughters who want to see data
Review: This book is to professional acheivement what the Hite report was to sexuality: A sampling (which the authors admit is not random) of how successful women managed to do well in today's world. The question: where were they yesterday? will not always give the whole story, but hearing a lot of stories and a smattering of statistics gives a real credence to the advice. Lots of practical points on raising girls. A unique book...I hope not only my daughter but her college admission boards and future employers read it well.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Review: This was an extraordinary book, very insightful. It let me know things are still possible and that dreams come true. This book tells you about other people that are very similar to yourself. The great thing about this book is that it displays all aspects of life. This book is definitely on my bookshelf.
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