Room at the Top: A Woman's Guide to Moving Up in Business

Lin Good, a consultant, was Associate Librarian at Queen’s University.

Ruth Markel, a management consultant based in Toronto, has conducted seminars and workshops across the country for achievement-oriented women. This book is a distillation of her experiences and of what she learned from the women she met in her sessions. It is a do-it-yourself manual for would-be achievers, who may have noticed that it is less stressful to be a boss than an underling.

There are predictable chapters summarizing the current wisdom on how to negotiate, to deal with your boss, and to play office politics, for those who wish to do so. For such upwardly mobile people as the intended readers, the advice on how to select a mentor seems a little naive but is sensible. It is apparently still necessary to remind people of the wisdom of the old rule that business and bed do not mix; Ms. Markel provides some apt case studies as reminders.

The chapter on how to juggle a job and a family implicitly acknowledges that, whatever the theoretical agreement, responsibility for home and children still falls on the woman, even when she has a full-time career. For those who can afford it, Ms. Markel suggests investing in professional household help, because in the long run it pays off at home and at work. Of course, for the vast majority of working women this is not an option. They are in the work place from economic necessity, clustered in low-paying jobs, in categories that for decades have been downgraded because they are occupied by women. However, for the increasing number of qualified women in business and the professions, Ms. Markel’s advice is realistic. And perhaps if more women get to the top, they will help to change the system, instead of accepting its current philosophy and being absorbed by it. For those willing, indeed eager, to accept such a task, this is a practical guide and a route-map.