Reflection 6

What do you think so far about Madsen's book? How have you seen yourself or other women around you represented in the stories of these women presidents?




The thing about Susan Madsen's On Becoming a Woman Leader, I really can not relate in the slightest to these women, other than being a woman myself. The book itself has some interesting roots and the point that Susan is trying to make is obvious, and she is clearly trying to lead other women to successfulness, or at least share how these ten women did so.

The stories are, however, a step backwards, in my opinion. The really take away from the book and its meaning. If it was called “A lifetime with…” or something of the caliber but this book focuses the too much on these stories that aren’t entertaining and all they do is repeat the “moral of the story” for example, instead of just saying lying is bad, she says lying is bad and this is why… story of boy who cried wolf (Brother Grimm), one-eyed cat (Paula Fox), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) and three pages later, still trying to prove that same point. It takes away the attention and the fact that none of the stories ever connect really turned me off.

The writing is good, the like how her words flow, but as for the “story”, she side-skirts a lot, and I feel that the book could be reduced a few chapters and a few “select stories” from each president.

I would rate this book a 6/10 and would not re-read it, nor recommend it to anyone. As I said before, I cannot relate myself or anyone I know to the stories of these women, other than we are women, and we have to work to get where we want in life.