The Power Code

The authors of the New York Times bestseller The Confidence Code explore the nature of women's power—in the workplace, in politics, and at home—explaining how a new model, one designed by and for women, will not only make it possible for women to become their most powerful selves but will benefit everyone. We are living in a moment of unprecedented transformation for women. Despite recent setbacks, women continue to advance in almost every arena—politics, business, education. We are starting to earn more than our husbands. More of us are getting elected to public office. We are better educated than men. Businesses know they need us and are desperate to hire and keep us. Management gurus at top universities say female leaders are the key to success in the 21st century. Of course, not everything is equal yet—and progress doesn't follow a straight line, as the recent Supreme Court ruling makes painfully clear—but the underlying evidence and the long-term indications show that the world is moving inexorably from one dominated by men, as it has been for 2000 years, to one in which women have an equal if not greater say in how things run. If it's all so great, (at least for some of us) why does it feel so hard and why are there so many tensions that no one wants to talk about? Almost a dozen global studies show women improve profits, so why aren't more of us CEOs? We're doing better at school than boys, yet we can't crack STEM? Do women use power differently and do we even want it? Can men ever learn to live with and, yes, love powerful women? And can we ever make real progress if we're still operating in a world built by and for men? Do we still have to become alpha men in skirts? What we need is a new definition of power and a reimagined workplace and homefront that everyone can buy into and benefit from. Drawing on the latest research, interviews with high-powered women, and their own personal stories, Kay and Shipman ask tough questions, surfacing hidden opportunities that draw on women's underappreciated strengths and presenting a new operating system that helps women use their talents to become their most powerful selves.

Katty Kay is the anchor of BBC World News America, based in Washington, DC. She is also a frequent contributor to Meet the Press and Morning Joe and a regular guest host for The Diane Rehm Show on NPR. She’s the author, along with Claire Shipman, of two New York Times bestsellers, Womenomics: Work Less, Achieve More, Live Better and The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know. In addition to her work on women’s issues, Katty has covered the Clinton administration sex scandal, four presidential elections, and the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. She was at the Pentagon just twenty minutes after a hijacked plane flew into the building on 9/11—one of her most vivid journalistic memories is of interviewing soldiers still visibly shaking from the attack. Katty grew up all over the Middle East, where her father was posted as a British diplomat. She studied modern languages at Oxford and is a fluent French and Italian speaker with some “rusty Japanese.” Katty juggles her journalism with raising four children with her husband, a consultant. Visit Katty online at www.theconfidencecode.com.