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How Men Think: The Seven Essential Rules for Making It in a Man's World
"An interesting tool for working with gender differences."
--John Gray
Author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
Men at work do it all the They brag, cover up their mistakes, pretend to know what they don't, start fights. And they still get ahead! Why? As psychologist Adrienne Mendell learned when she interviewed one-hundred male executives, the traits that women spend their entire lives erasing from their personalities are actually the qualities that men value in the world of work. And since men are still in the power positions, if you don't play it their way, you don't play at all.
Based on Mendell's interviews and her experience of counseling hundreds of frustrated career women, How Men Think identifies the seven rules that men learned by playing sports as children--games that excluded girls. These rules may seem simple on the surface, but understanding them as men do is anything but easy. You may have fallen into many of these traps
* You're mad because you want your male boss to let you control your projects. But you've got to take control--that's the only way you'll get it.
* You're steamed because a male colleague consistently takes credit for your work. Do you make a point of touting your accomplishments?
* When you make a mistake you apologize. But the man you apologize to doesn't think you're polite--he thinks you're admitting incompetence.
* A fight with a male colleague leaves you shaken. But the men in your office shout at each other for an hour and then go out for a beer.
These are the times that try women's souls! The strategies, insights, and eye-opening advice in How Men Think will help you get along better with the boys and propel you to the top where you belong.
"The more women have opportunities to play sports the more proficient they will become in competing in this men's world of 'unwritten rules.' To bridge the gap, Mendell's book, How Men Think, is a necessary guide for women working with men."
--Diane Everett, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Association for Girls and Women in Sport
--John Gray
Author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
Men at work do it all the They brag, cover up their mistakes, pretend to know what they don't, start fights. And they still get ahead! Why? As psychologist Adrienne Mendell learned when she interviewed one-hundred male executives, the traits that women spend their entire lives erasing from their personalities are actually the qualities that men value in the world of work. And since men are still in the power positions, if you don't play it their way, you don't play at all.
Based on Mendell's interviews and her experience of counseling hundreds of frustrated career women, How Men Think identifies the seven rules that men learned by playing sports as children--games that excluded girls. These rules may seem simple on the surface, but understanding them as men do is anything but easy. You may have fallen into many of these traps
* You're mad because you want your male boss to let you control your projects. But you've got to take control--that's the only way you'll get it.
* You're steamed because a male colleague consistently takes credit for your work. Do you make a point of touting your accomplishments?
* When you make a mistake you apologize. But the man you apologize to doesn't think you're polite--he thinks you're admitting incompetence.
* A fight with a male colleague leaves you shaken. But the men in your office shout at each other for an hour and then go out for a beer.
These are the times that try women's souls! The strategies, insights, and eye-opening advice in How Men Think will help you get along better with the boys and propel you to the top where you belong.
"The more women have opportunities to play sports the more proficient they will become in competing in this men's world of 'unwritten rules.' To bridge the gap, Mendell's book, How Men Think, is a necessary guide for women working with men."
--Diane Everett, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Association for Girls and Women in Sport
- GenresNonfictionSelf Help
272 pages, Paperback
First published April 16, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 3, 2015
Great reading for all women with male coworkers. Some of the stuff is outdated by now though, but still very interesting points on how to deal with men!
April 5, 2021
Should have been titled "How Men Act." Interesting and derivative by turns, but worth reading.
July 13, 2021
As someone else here mentioned, the title could just as well have been : How the Boy's club act!
Men's tribe language - their ruling techniques, being verbal abusive towards (for them) scary and competent (and sexy) women - it's super interesting to see how Mendell show numerous examples of total sexist discrimination and glass roofs all over...
This is quite interesting - one of the best advices I remember, is to only have 1 paper/casefile or whatever you're working with on your desk at a time - love the truth about how much waste of time it it to look through stacks of papers every time you'll sit down after a break!
I loved her description of her journey from a newbie in the sailor milieu till a respected veteran - all the silent knowledge the men never shared, how many mistakes one has to do to learn - great insight!
The good news is that she uses sources from back to the 70-ies and the latest was in the beginning of the 90-ies - that's 30 years ago - and I hope and believe that the societies and business world has moved a bit in the right direction since then...
But, this book is still very interesting and I recommend it highly to those who are interested in the inequality between the sexes and that should be pretty much everybody!
Men's tribe language - their ruling techniques, being verbal abusive towards (for them) scary and competent (and sexy) women - it's super interesting to see how Mendell show numerous examples of total sexist discrimination and glass roofs all over...
This is quite interesting - one of the best advices I remember, is to only have 1 paper/casefile or whatever you're working with on your desk at a time - love the truth about how much waste of time it it to look through stacks of papers every time you'll sit down after a break!
I loved her description of her journey from a newbie in the sailor milieu till a respected veteran - all the silent knowledge the men never shared, how many mistakes one has to do to learn - great insight!
The good news is that she uses sources from back to the 70-ies and the latest was in the beginning of the 90-ies - that's 30 years ago - and I hope and believe that the societies and business world has moved a bit in the right direction since then...
But, this book is still very interesting and I recommend it highly to those who are interested in the inequality between the sexes and that should be pretty much everybody!
July 5, 2026
Only found out in the last 10 pages that this book was actually published in 1996. It’s a shame it’s still needed 30 years later. Having said that, its advice isn’t outdated at all.
January 21, 2008
Understanding the influence of gender on business.
September 6, 2009
I've seen the behavior; now I understand what's behind it. Want to make it in a male designed business world? Want to better understand the men in your life? Read this.
March 30, 2013
A should-read book on office politics for women in business.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews