“Since it is my intention to say something which will be of practical use... I have thought it proper to represent things as they are in real truth, rather than as they are imagined.”
From award-winning NPR journalist and host of The Indicator from Planet Money comes a new book about women in the workplace.
In her new book, Machiavelli For Women, NPR host of The Indicator from Planet Money Stacey Vanek Smith studies Machiavelli’s The Prince, the nearly 500-year-old political manifesto, as a blueprint to show how women can take and maintain power.
Through a fusion of old ideas, current research, and personal stories--the book includes Vanek Smith’s interviews with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, blockbuster screenwriter (Crazy Rich Asians) Adele Lim, Wall Street executive Sallie Krawcheck, Tech Unicorn founder Neha Narkhede, Olympian Alysia Montaño, Michelin Star Chef, Niki Nakayama, and AI entrepreneur Vivienne Ming.
With charm and wit, Stacey uses Machiavelli’s The Prince as a guide to understanding behavior and power in Renaissance politics—demonstrating how women can use those same principles today to take and maintain power in careers where they have long been cast as second-best. Highlighting the latest research, tips from successful women across many industries, and experiences from Stacey’s own life, Machiavelli for Women offers insight and real tools to combat these obstacles in areas including money, promotions, negotiating, harassment and getting interrupted.
Photo by Sylvie Rosokoff
Women are making great strides in the workplace, but in some ways, women are stuck:
80% of CEOs are male.
75% of judges, surgeons and elected officials are men.
40% of US businesses are started by women, but women only get 2% of venture capital.
Women make 80¢ for every $1 a man makes, for Black women it’s 65¢, for Latina and Native women it’s 55¢.
When women retire they have about 1/3 the savings men do and women over 65 are more than twice as likely as men to live below the poverty line.
Praise for Machiavelli For Women
“Rich, insightful, and full of big ideas that translate simply into daily practice, Machiavelli For Women is a delicious look at what we have to gain by examining our relationship to power.”
—Sally Helgesen, New York Times bestselling author of How Women Rise
“Accessible, funny, clear-eyed, and practical—Machiavelli For Women deserves to be an instant classic.”
—Sarah Knight, New York Times bestselling author of The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck
“Machiavelli For Women is the ultimate battle guide for our times. Brimming with hard-boiled strategies, laced with wit, it’s a must read for every woman ready wield power unapologetically.”
—Claire Shipman, bestselling co-author of The Confidence Code
“If Machiavelli were alive, he’d undoubtedly tip his hat to Stacey Vanek Smith for totally reimagining his work in a brilliant, entertaining and super-instructive way. The magic of this book is Stacey’s ability to make scholarly material accessible and inspiring. Gender inequity in our culture is one of the enduring challenges of our time. And this book is an outstanding addition to the body of work around how to defeat it.”
—Guy Raz, host and creator, How I Built This
“A succinct and savvy guide to making your way in the world, Machiavelli’s Prince offers a clever conceit to deliver a raft of practical advice for women looking to make their mark and blast off the glass ceiling for good.”
—Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America and author of Dare to Speak
