Description
Regine, a developmental psychologist and writer who conducts workshops and life coaching, tells the stories of about 50 successful women from different areas of life and around the world (mostly the US) who achieved success in business, politics, writing, art, medicine, and other fields. For these women, which she sees as combining the will of iron with the gentleness of a butterfly, Regine shows how they have mixed masculine with feminine skills like vulnerability, inclusion, empathy, a holistic perspective, spirituality, and emotional strength, to transform themselves and a society that has been focused on power over others. She describes the importance of remembering women's history, closing the gender gap, pursuing passion, dealing with negative aspects of masculinity and stereotypes, listening to inner wisdom, dealing with injustice, and how these women did these things. There is no index. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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This inspiring and compelling narrative weaves together stories of sixty successful women from all walks of life and throughout the world. The author spent several years in eight countries interviewing dynamic female role models: businesswomen, CEOs, a Congresswoman, a governor, an ex-Prime Minister, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a winemaker, artists, doctors, nurses, and many others. The author calls these women "Iron Butterflies" because they meld a will of iron with the gentle, nurturing touch of a butterfly. With disarming candor, these women talk about their struggles, their fallibilities, and their strengths in the journey to the top of their professions. Forging their leadership from an amalgam of masculine and feminine skills, all of these Iron Butterflies have transformed themselves and in doing so they are contributing to a larger social transformation. A key to this personal and social transformation rests in their ability to address vulnerability in themselves and those around them, and transform it into a crucible of healing, growth, and innovation. Knowing how to deal with vulnerability, in ourselves and with others, evokes feminine skills and values and is a key to the societal change so many are seeking. Critiquing the command-and-control style of leadership, derived from the gladiator concept of male invulnerability, the author convincingly demonstrates how traditional feminine skills and values—such as inclusion, empathy, a holistic perspective, relational skills, and emotional strength—can be applied to empower more people than ever before. Like the sixty Iron Butterflies profiled, leaders in the 21st century will paradoxically embrace vulnerability and durability, creating better working and living relationships for us all.
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