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Book Review of The Male Factor: The Unwritten Rules, Misperceptions, and Secret Beliefs of Men in the Workplace

Jennmarie68 avatar reviewed on + 217 more book reviews


Shaunti Feldhahn spent many years collecting data about how men think, that led her to start collecting information about how men perceive women in the workplace. At first I thought that this would be a bunch of statistics and charts. There were some statistics and charts but that was not the meat of the book. Most of the book explains what men are thinking about working women, why they think that way, and what changes a woman could make to be better accepted by the men she works with.

There were so many things that I didn't really think would actually hinder a woman's ability to move up in the corporate world. But most of these things were things that all (or most) women do instinctively that men think are unprofessional. Then there were the things that I've learned in my own experiences that I thought were fairly common knowledge amongst women (but apparently they are not). One of the things that was most shocking to me is the way women dress, even when we think we look professional, can be very distracting to men. I won't go into specifics, but I think it's interesting, especially when you go to her website and see some examples...

I liked how she looked at the inherent differences between how men and women think and how the brain is wired for each gender to have these differences of thought. Even though I've recognized these differences on my own I never even realized that they would affect how a woman is perceived at work. I also liked how each fact was followed up with a quote from a man that she had interviewed. The quotes were very pertinent and really made me think about the point the man was trying to make.

I really liked this book. Not only was it interesting but I think that it was enlightening. Just as Feldhahn says, you may not agree with everything she discovered about men, but if you can at least understand it then you could be doing yourself a huge favor.