-
The Making of a Manager
Julie Zhuo
Great managers are made, not born. That’s the core lesson of Julie Zhuo’s handbook for becoming a better boss. With personal anecdotes from her crash course in management at one of Silicon Valley’s biggest startups, plus step-by-step leadership training, Zhuo sets you up for success.
-
Daily Rituals: Women at Work
Mason Currey
How many times have we heard—or uttered—the refrain, “I don’t know how she does it”? In this compendium, Mason Currey documents the daily obstacles and rituals of 143 women artists—painters, composers, sculptors, scientists, filmmakers, and performers—to tackle that question head-on.
-
Like She Owns the Place
Cara Alwill Leyba
Imagine what life would be like if you could accept failure, imperfections, and screw-ups. If you could choose pride over insecurity, trust your gut, and accomplish your dreams. Using her personal experience and expertise as a life coach, Cara Alwill Leyba shows you how to build your confidence and fearlessly show up in the world.
-
Didn't See It Coming
Carey Nieuwhof
There are challenges in life that few of us expect but that we all experience: cynicism, compromise, disconnectedness, irrelevance, pride, burnout, and emptiness. Pastor Carey Nieuwhof helps you navigate these stymieing challenges, and offers guidelines for anticipating and avoiding the ones yet to come.
-
Imagine It Forward
Beth Comstock and Tahl Raz
Transforming the mindset and culture of a company is fraught with uncertainty, tension, and too often failure. It calls for the courage to defy convention, go around corporate gatekeepers when necessary, and reinvent what’s possible. Beth Comstock, the former Vice Chair and head of marketing and innovation at GE, shows you how to use creativity to spearhead change.
-
Wisdom at Work
Chip Conley
We need to talk about ageism in the workplace. In the era of new and shiny, a growing segment of the population is undervalued and threatened by the digital natives nipping at their heels. But Chip Conley argues that experience is on the brink of a comeback. Companies are finally waking up to the value of the humility, emotional intelligence, and wisdom that come with age.
-
Women & Money (Revised and Updated)
Suze Orman
Take control of your finances and your life with Suze Orman’s rock-solid financial empowerment plan. Her practical advice and compassionate approach to coaching equips women with financial knowledge and emotional awareness to overcome the blocks that have kept them from acting in the best interest of their money—and themselves.
-
The Job
Ellen Ruppel Shell
Since 1973, productivity has grown almost six times faster than wages. Millions of Americans work more than one job to barely eke out a living, and middle-class jobs are slipping away. Journalist Ellen Ruppel Shell uncovers the true cost—political, economic, social, and personal—of our mounting anxiety over jobs, and what we can do to regain control over our working lives.
-
Dare to Lead
Brené Brown
Leadership is not about status and power—it’s about taking responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and having the courage to develop that potential. In her latest bestseller, Brené Brown reveals how to cultivate braver, more daring leaders, by embedding the value of courage in your culture.
-
No Hard Feelings
Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy
The modern workplace can be an emotional minefield, filled with confusing power structures and unwritten rules. This hilarious guide to effectively expressing your emotions at the office teaches you how to figure out which emotions to toss, which to keep to yourself, and which to express in order to be both happier and more effective at work.
-
Burnout
Emily Nagoski, PhD and Amelia Nagoski, DMA
What’s expected of women and what it’s really like to be a woman in today’s world are two very different things—and we exhaust ourselves trying to close the gap between them. With the help of eye-opening science, prescriptive advice, and helpful worksheets and exercises, sisters Emily and Amelia Nagoski explain what we’re up against—and show us how to fight back.
-
Work Wife
Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur
Forget everything you’ve heard about not mixing BFFs and business. Female partnerships in the office can be the most productive, progressive, and empowering, according to business partners and best friends Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur. In this book, they offer an invaluable roadmap for a feminist reimagining of the workplace.
-
More Than Enough
Elaine Welteroth
In 2017, Elaine Welteroth became the youngest person ever appointed editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue. She infused social consciousness into its pages and put herself on the frontlines of a movement for the next generation of changemakers. In this part-manifesto, part-memoir, she explores what it means to come into your own—on your own terms.
-
Range
David Epstein
Think you need to put in 10,000 hours to be good at something? Think again. David Epstein researched the world’s most successful athletes, artists, inventors, and scientists and discovered that in most fields—especially complex and unpredictable ones—generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. So get your dabble on.
-
Alpha Girls
Julian Guthrie
Julian Guthrie takes readers behind the closed doors of venture capital to follow the careers of four women who were largely written out of history—until now. These women, juggling work and family, shaped the tech landscape we know today while overcoming unequal pay, betrayals, and the sexist attitudes prevalent in Silicon Valley and in male-dominated industries everywhere.
-
Finding the Bright Side
Shannon Bream
From law school to the Miss America pageant to Fox News, Shannon Bream has spent her entire adult life navigating high-pressure environments where perfection is expected and competition is the name of the game. In this behind-the-scenes memoir, she shares her journey and offers inspiration for women seeking purpose and growth.
-
The Ambition Decisions
Hana Schank and Elizabeth Wallace
Whether you’re deciding if you should pass up a promotion in favor of more flex time, planning when to get pregnant, or wondering what the ramifications are of being the only person in your house who ever unloads the dishwasher, The Ambition Decisions is a guide to the changes that may seem arbitrary but are actually life-defining, by women who’ve been there.
-
Everything Is Figureoutable
Marie Forleo
If there’s one lesson Marie Forleo wants you to learn, it’s this: everything is figureoutable. Whether you want to leave a dead-end job, break an addiction, heal a relationship, grow a business, travel the globe, or solve world hunger, this book will train your brain to think more creatively and positively—especially in the face of setbacks.
-
Double Down
Antoinette M. Clarke and Tricia Clarke-Stone
To win when the deck is stacked against you, you need to ditch the old status quo rules. Packed with strategies and solutions, as well as stories of badass Boss Ladies including Ayesha Curry, Carly Cushnie, Anne Wojcicki, and many others, this remixed rulebook will help you see the power in yourself—and double down on it.
-
The Soulful Art of Persuasion
Jason Harris
Persuasion isn’t about facts and argument—it’s all about personal character. Through instructive and entertaining stories, Jason Harris lays out 11 habits that will guide readers to become authentically persuasive: earning respect through collaboration, becoming the person others want to be around, and practicing generosity through gestures big and small.
-
Invested
Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab revolutionized the investment business in the 1970s when he brought discounted stock trading to the masses. By opening shop on main street, his eponymous company became one of the leading financial services firms in the world. This personal memoir recounts his ups and downs, and offers inspiration to those who dare to dream.
Whether you’re fresh out of college and working your first full-time job or a VP well-versed in balancing board meetings and babysitters, one thing’s for certain: the 9-to-5 that Dolly Parton crooned about in 1980? Nobody’s working those hours anymore. Today’s job market demands always-on access that leaves little room for life outside the office. Add in spending quality time with family, cultivating friendships, exercise, self-care, giving back to the community, sleep…the juggle is real. Every non-retired woman I know is leaning in so hard she’s about to fall over, so it’s time to recalibrate. This list of books for the modern working woman will help you take charge of your career, your finances, and your emotional well-being so you can be the boss you are.
Featured Image: @criene/Twenty20