Fawn Germer celebrates women's accomplishments in Mustang Sallies: Success Secrets of Women Who Refuse to Run with the Herd. While she finds that sex discrimination still exists in today's workplace, she emphasizes the individualistic streak in certain women that enables them to succeed. An investigative reporter, Germer interviewed more than 50 women, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Susan Sarandon and Martina Navratilova, for this book. The women's stories are truly inspiring. In high school, Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch was asked to leave a meeting for the college-bound and told she should be grateful the school provided secretarial training. Kickbusch later became a lieutenant colonel in the Army. Nancy Hopkins started her fight for equality when, as a full professor at MIT, she had less lab space than recently hired male assistant professors.
Germer also provides practical suggestions for workplace success. Some seem self-evident, such as asking for what you want. Unfortunately, many women are still afraid of being labeled overly aggressive, an example of the lingering societal battles Gerner stresses in the book.
Faye Jones is Dean of Learning Resources at Nashville State Technical Community College. Her doctoral dissertation was on Victorian working women.
