Personal finance for millennials is a bit of a hobby for me, so I knew I was going to read this book as soon as it was announced. I liked the case study format of the book, and that there was both a bit of personal narrative/lived experience and some action items to work on in each chapter. The biggest takeaway, for me, was that we as women supporting women in the workplace need to understand not only how to compensate for and overcome our own perceived shortcomings, but also understand how to help our friends overcome their challenges too. The scenarios that this book goes into (imposter syndrome, perfectionism, negotiating tactics) weren't surprises, but it just gave a nice language toolkit for how to explain those things in a practical way (ie, I sent a bunch of screenshots to my friends as I was reading). Glad this book exists.

Claire Wasserman has devoted a great deal of time to getting women to advance their careers, and most importantly get paid what they are worth.  As a career coach and founder of the startup Ladies Get Paid, she is definitely one who practices what she preaches in the fight to bring equality to the workplace. Her new book of the same name acts as a guide to women on how to navigate the workplace, find what fits your values, and how to fight imposter syndrome. 

Many of us put our career plans on hold in 2020, struggling just to find employment, so parts of this book are to be taken with a grain of salt. The information, however, is invaluable. Wasserman is a writer and speaker who is willing to learn from others and wants to make the voices of those who are often ignored heard, which is refreshing. Her advice is for the most part straightforward and easy to follow, especially in how to find a mentor, negotiate a raise, and encourage self-advocacy.  Wasserman definitely encourages advocacy in your own community and speaking up for others as a leader. 

Ladies Get Paid is an uplifting book and includes real stories of people who have put these activities into practice.  

Ladies Get Paid is available January 12, 2021 from Gallery Books.

I expected Ladies Get Paid to be focused on the financial side of our careers. I went into this book expecting to read about negotiating salary, bonuses, benefits, and total compensation packages but it is so much more than that. It’s full of case studies of women who have faced struggles in the workplace and how they adjusted course to find the path that was best suited for them. They won’t all apply to your specific situation but some of them hit very close to home for me.

One of the areas I’ve personally struggled with has always been in feeling like I need to keep my head down, focus on my work, and let my results speak for themselves and Ladies Get Paid addressed that exact feeling multiple times. It pushed me to move outside of my comfort zone and speak to women in my life about it. I found that they felt the exact way and now we’re working to push each other to speak up and be more visible in our careers. It might be a tiny thing such as turning on our cameras during remote meetings but that visibility does help!

While I won’t say that I felt like there was anything shared in Ladies Get Paid that was stunningly new information it did reinforce very important and powerful messages. It also helped me reach a place where I felt empowered to reclaim my worth and expectations around my career and my goals. I was struggling with imposter syndrome worse than ever before and this book helped push me out of that and into a new level of self-belief and confidence.

Each chapter focuses on a different struggle facing women in the workplace and provides questions that make us do a deep dive into ourselves to identify our areas of strength and what is holding us back. I read this as an eBook and found I needed to dig out a new journal to use as a companion so I could answer the questions and make notes. By the end, I found that I had drafted goals for 2021 and made a plan to actively pursue the promotion I’ve been hoping to earn.

I feel empowered, which is exactly what I was hoping to feel after reading Ladies Get Paid. I’ve already recommended it to many of my colleagues and women in my professional groups. It’s a great book to have on your bookshelves. I am absolutely certain you’ll find yourself reaching for it again, and again, and again when you need a big dose of female empowerment to get yourself back on track.

Women in the workforce has been an ongoing conversation in my friend group lately. Not only has the coronavirus taken hundreds of thousands of American lives, but this pandemic has also highlighted many systemic inequalities that have been bubbling under the surface for way too long. In September alone, more than 850,000 women left the workforce, 4 times as many as men. (Pallavi Gogoi, NPR)

Why do you ask? Working has become almost impossible for many parents during the last 7 months and women are facing the brunt of it...and a large part of this is the gender pay gap. In many households, men make more money even if they hold the same job titles.

"So when couples have to take an economic decision because women typically earn less, they are the ones who take the step back" (Pallavi Gogoi, NPR), and never has this been more clear than during this 2020 pandemic.

Ladies Get Paid could not have come at a better time, as Claire Wasserman takes on how to promote gender equality in the workplace. As the founder of a women's career development organization, Wasserman's writing is clear and approachable and filled with valuable tools on how to broach empowering conversations, negotiating pay, and more. Wasserman's goal is to promote the idea that talking about money and what we are worth is not only important but necessary...and something that many of us still find taboo, and it begins with speaking up.

I found this book to be incredibly informative and inspiring and I love the idea that every small step really is significant for all of us. Thank you to Gallery Books for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.