Rise to the Top: How Woman Leverage Their Professional Persona to Earn More and Rise to the Top

by Stacey Hawley

More than ever, women are achieving outstanding levels of professional success. Whether CEOs, board members, entrepreneurs, or high performers, women are a game-changing force in the global economy. But women want and need to be paid appropriately for their contributions--no matter what rung of the ladder they're on. There has never been a stronger focus on women's pay than now, from politicians to activists to corporate America. Rise to the Top is written from the inside perspective of a leading female executive-compensation advisor who understands how pay is determined and rewards and benefits are granted in corporate America.

Rise to the Top :

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2014

Reviews

[Laura Is · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok. Maybe this book has reasonable information. Maybe. But I just cannot get over the anti-women rhetoric espoused by this author.

Among other reasons, she actually states that women make less money than men because of choices they make and that doesn't represent a gender pay gap. Nevermind that we're a sexually dimorphic species and only women are able to produce children. Nevermind that men being treated more favorably than women because they can't have children is in and of itself a discrimination against one gender because they're busy propogating the species, a necessity for the continuation of mankind.

This woman actually compares the gender pay gap to Bigfoot. She states that the only time and place any discrimination takes place is when two professionals, one of each gender, are performing the same job with the same experience/background at two different pay levels. Regardless of the more complexities of gender-based pay, I could elaborate but choose not to, the very situation she boils the gender pay gap down to in her limited mind is one that pervades society. She denies is existence and claims that the complex social dynamics that prevent women from pursuing high paid careers is in our heads. To use a euphemism like her Bigfoot one, she's acting like landing on the moon was done in a movie studio. Ridiculous.

I can include links to studies showing more favorable hiring rates, pay, and even grades on exams to men over women from blind studies if anyone asks. But seriously, this woman is part of the problem in equality. I hesitate to trust anything she claims in the rest of this book. She obviously doesn't consider evidence-based conclusions valid, so why would she include them in her book?

Now, I admit that the gender pay gap is a complex issue and she does mention that if one believes that they're being discriminated against they may have a tendency to behave in ways that might inhibit their own progress. But she takes a simple ideology too far. I would never recommend this book to anyone. Except maybe Trump supporters.

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot more interesting for a women-in-buisiness type book (that I was reading for work) than I expected. Some might have taken her statements to be anti-woman, but I found the research to be credible, well-documented and provided real reasons much more beneficial than to just blame men for a glass ceiling or failure to hire. She makes great points about the need for women to learn how to leverage their professional persona (hence the title) and bypass the blame game for the real solutions for women such as asking the deeper questions: do women log more or less hours than men, do women make a personal choice to focus on family for a while and then return to the work force among other such questions. The bureau of Labor and Statistics reports (at the time of book) that "women make 82 cents on the dollar of their male counterparts" however, the data is strictly based on age, not on a woman doing the exact same job as a man. In addition to pointing out the skewed statistics, I thought it was more helpful to be taught that there is a game being played and how well you play the game will improve how you are perceived/appreciated (perception = realtity...always). She also points out that knowing your leadership style can help show weaknesses that need to be addressed. If you have a confident and humble style, when asking for compensation, you need to figure out how to be more aggressive and sell yourself. This is a book about how to play the game within the existing framework. You can wring your hands and whine about anti-woman sentiment or make use of these tips provided by someone who learned how to play the game, succeeded very well and offered to give you the power to do so as well.

[Sylvia Carrizosa · Rating 1 out of 5]

⭐️

[Raedean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read on compensation and getting females in the mindset to close the wage gap.