This is one woman's remarkable story about how she fought blatant discrimination to reach the top of her profession and become acting Chief Information Officer for United Airlines, and then CEO of the United Airlines Employees' Credit Union. At times the book reads like an intense drama, as Fridrych shares the negative emotions that discrimination evoked in her. And yet, this is an empowering book, where Fridrych encourages women to not only take action against discrimination, but to do the internal work that is required to become a powerful woman. With hindsight vision, Fridrych provides insight into her successes, reflection on her shortcomings, and ideas about how she would do things differently today. In addition to sharing a roadmap for achieving a successful career, she provides the reader a list of lessons learned, and questions to consider individually or in group discussions.
Throughout her story, Fridrych offers advice on how to handle the specific, discriminatory situations that most women will face during their careers. She writes about feeling angry (and sometimes defeated), when she was ignored in meetings, intimidated by bosses, given unequal pay, overlooked for deserved promotions, and eventually furloughed from her company. While the book is intended to help all aspiring businesswomen, it is especially pertinent for women of color who are experiencing the same degree of discrimination that white women faced fifty years ago. Fridrych notes that it would be easy to blame all her workplace struggles on men and the patriarchal mindset that governs corporate America. While she does address sexual harassment, intimidation, unequal pay, and exclusion from the good-old-boys' network, she also focuses on feelings that many women share: anger (sometimes rage), unworthiness, lack of confidence, and fear of success. Fridrych maintains that women must address these disempowering demons, not only to become successful, but to feel good about themselves.
While women have struggled in the past to be successful, Fridrych believes that we are at a pivotal point in our history, where the onus will be on businesses to make it easier for women to succeed. As women have developed the left side of their brain through education and experience, they have also brought their right-brain, intuitive, collaborative skills into the workplace. This use of balanced skills is the reason why current studies have shown that female leadership produces better results