The
readers who made a bestseller of See Jane Win and all girls
and young women who value personal achievement will welcome
this inspiring companion volume in which successful women
speak about the turning points, crises, mentors, opportunities,
failures, and blessed accidents they encountered on the road
to fulfillment.
In How Jane Won, Dr. Sylvia Rimm lets more than fifty women tell
the stories, in their own words, about how they got to where
they are. Among the women are plenty of household names, including
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, actress and singer Florence Henderson, former New Jersey
Governor Christine Todd Whitman, space shuttle commander Eileen
Collins, astronaut Cady Coleman, Harry Potter artist Mary
GrandPré, and novelist Jacquelyn Mitchard. But there
are also women you've never heard of, everyday scientists, teachers,
artists, and homemakers who are every bit as successful.
To learn how these women earned, struggled, and lucked their
way to the top is both fun and inspiring.
Significantly,
success in How Jane Won is not narrowly defined. A sense of
happiness and satisfaction is just as important as a six-figure
paycheck or fancy title. Any doubt about this is dispelled
by Lisa Taylor's account of why she loves being an elementary
school teacher or Roberta Baldwin's sonnet to the virtues
of volunteering.
Sometimes
the first step to success is believing it's possible. How
Jane Won erases all doubt. |
Click to read Highlights of How Jane Won
Reviews of How Jane Won:
Every
reader will find resonance somewhere in this wide array of experiences
of hardship and comfort, mediocre and top grades, social success,
and difficulty. . . this impressive group of mainstream feminist
role models will inspire girls and women alike.
"The bestselling record of the Rimms' previous book,
a 20-city radio tour, a 23-city author tour, and widespread
interest in girls' development should guarantee this book
broad exposure and a long life."
Publishers Weekly, December, 2000
"How
Jane Won is a great book for our daughters. It's a roadmap
to living an extraordinary life." Ann Curry, NBC Today Show
Books
can influence young lives. In 1999, the best selling See Jane
Win: The Rimm Report on How 1,000 Girls Became Successful
Women by child psychologist Sylvia Rimm inspired mothers who
were seeking advice on how to raise their daughters. Now its
companion, How Jane won: 55 Successful Women Share How They
Grew from Ordinary Girls to Extraordinary Women, aims to inspire
those daughters.
More
than a how-to book, How Jane Won shimmers with personal triumphs.
Gathering a cultural and socio-economic mix of women ages
30-80, Rimm’s interviews capture the passion of these
varied individuals and their perseverance against the roadblocks
of poverty, physical, and emotional handicaps and self-doubt.
Positive
statements like that pop up repeatedly in these stories, showing
at least a single binding thread throughout the interviews.
At some time in each of these women’s lives, someone
cheers on their behalf. Someone tells them that they are worthwhile
and deserving. “You can do it” may be the most
important words they hear – a catalyst for choosing
a positive path. Many have supportive parents, yet positive
messages also can originate with teachers, nuns, bosses, friends,
or lovers.
Like
many of these women, today’s teens still deal with poverty,
racism, peer pressure, raging hormones, and not fitting in.
Women’s issues in society, however, have changed and
new obstacles have replaced old ones. Schools that provided
safe and fertile ground for many of the 55 successful women
Rimm reports on now practice “lock-down” drills
preparing children to avoid shooters who may blast into classrooms.
What
has not changed, however, is the need for role models. How
Jane Won presents myriad choices,
allowing girls to identify with the lives of women astronauts,
district attorneys, CEOs, civil engineers, professors, photographers,
musicians, editors, authors, teachers, and nurses. Most important,
the book offers words of encouragement.
That
may be all a girl needs to give her a step up.
Theodora
Aggeles,
Saint Petersburg Times,
March 25, 2001.
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