How does a woman define success? Is it the same way a man describes success?
This question crossed my mind when I read about a book titled, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham. I know Buckingham is a self described “strength strategist,” but the title didn’t connect with me. I’ve done a lot of research on women and what they want – the words “having a strong life” have never come up.
You obviously can’t lump all women into one bucket, but I am curious – what does success look like to a woman? What does she really want? Especially from her career?
For many men, success is about earning lots of money, having power and control, being a good provider and being independent.
Women in the workforce have been pushing to have those same opportunities, to earn more money, have more power, move up the corporate ladder. They’ve been working the long hours, taking on more responsibility, proving they’re just as driven as the men. All this is true, but is it what women really want?
In their book Womenomics, Claire Shipman and Katty Kay present research and advice on how women can write their own rules for success.
“We want to show you your value through a whole different lens. We want you to work less but achieve more and live better. We want to make sure you go through such a profound mental shift that once you put down this book you will never again see achievement as hours in the seat, rungs on the ladder, and a fancy business title. It’s all too easy to be influenced by other people’s perceptions of what you should do. We’re going to show each of you how to carve out a whole new more satisfying path and write your own rules for success.
We’ll teach you how to come clean about what you really want, how to ignore what the traditional careerists say you want, and how to say no to what you don’t want.”
Holly Buchanan is the co-Author of The Soccer Mom Myth - Today’s Female Consumer: Who She Really Is, Why She Really Buys. You can read her marketing to women blog at http://marketingtowomenonline.typepad.com/blog/