Confronting adversity & inequality

Deeply poignant and often hilarious, this book is a woman’s guide to breaking socially imposed and self-reinforced glass ceilings, and growing to her full potential; elaborates Madhupriti Mitra

Price: `299 Publisher: Westland

It is critical for men to understand the thought processes of women and recognise that their behavior stems from the social conditioning which begins from a girl’s childhood, which is so very different from how men are brought up. If they understand women, it will help men become better partners to them at home and at work. This is one critical aspect that has been addressed in the book.

No man has ever been asked the question of whether he would want to work or not post his marriage, but every girl has to answer the taboo. Only a few are able to break free and make the right choice, but most young women fall prey to this institutionalised structure. At work and home, there is latent institutional discrimination and social prejudice at play.

Whether it is the assumption that a career is only a stopgap until marriage or the reluctance to promote married women for fear that they will prioritise family over work, the climb to the top is twice as steep for women. As a result, they second-guess their own abilities and hesitate to claim what is rightfully theirs.

There is no denying the fact that our society is perceived as a man-driven world and women are just on the sidelines. Instead of understanding the core of the matter, generations tend to have left everything on luck. Little efforts have been made earlier to understand how and why this pattern is being followed by our ancestors since ages.

Even in this contemporary world, men get more privileges than women especially at the workplace and this is the point where most women lack confidence and back out. Being it is personal life or professional, Apurva Purohit through her new book ‘Lady You’re the Boss’ highlighted the struggles of women in acquiring basic rights in their daily lives. Apart from highlighting the issues, the book came up with suggestions with the help of anecdotes and examples to overcome these issues.

Among many, one distinct feature of the book is that it has a summary section towards the end of every chapter. The summary will give you an analysis to the chapter in four key points. The book is divided into two sections. The first part talks about the fundamental rights in daily lives, professional growth, subconscious bias, selfbelief. The chapter ‘A Minimum Life’ talks about the evolution of women empowerment with a focus on the day to day challenge that every woman goes through while achieving something in their pursual. It further stresses how women shouldn’t expect everything from others instead of looking for selfhelp. They don’t need anyone’s liking or appraisal to be good enough in something.

While the second part gives you an understanding of being a good leader in professional life and how one can achieve that. It stresses the challenges and the situation one has to face while leading a team. It can also work as a guide to the newbies entering the corporate world. With first-hand experiences, she also argues that leadership is not confined to masculinity, prone to pontificate and those who can give a lengthier version of a TED talk on his personal opinion leadership but someone who can give pithy tips and subtle suggestions to stimulate everyone around us to think and dig deeper.