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Articles

Vol. 38 (2018)

Is it Really Helping? A Review of Women's "Self-Help" Literature

DOI
https://doi.org/10.21423/awlj-v38.a337
Submitted
April 13, 2018
Published
2018-10-03

Abstract

In this article, we review recent popular literature about women in leadership at work. We focus on popular literature because of its extensive and diverse audience, and approach it as an indication of the status of women in the workplace: what is faced and how it is handled. In our review of the most frequently purchased books about women and leadership, we argue that these works' general message is as follows: women face difficulty getting ahead in their careers, women require advice about how to be successful leaders in their workplaces, and that advice instructs women that if they aspire to get ahead or even just stay afloat in systems that, for the most part, are still dominated by men and built on hegemonic values, then women employees must change aspects of themselves. We argue that this focus on individual women changing their behavior and appearance in the workplace fails to challenge systems issues that contribute to women's experiences as leaders in work. We conclude by inviting scholars to shift these conversations from how women should change to how everyone, including women, should work together to change workplace norms.