ELITE WOMAN ARE DIFFERENT FFROM OTHER WOMEN

Alison Wolf, THE XX Factor: How the Rise of Working Women Has Created a Far Less Equal World (New York: Crown Publishing, 2013) (What is unfortunate about the book's subtitle is that many people will read into it an implied "causal" or "blame" link between women and inequality. Wolf is not arguing or suggesting that woman are the cause of, or to be blame for, the inequality. Rather, the book is about the unintended consequences of the quite reasonable decisions that elite women and men have made. From the book jacket: The gender gap is closing. Today, for the first time in history, tens of millions of women are spending more time at the boardroom table than at the kitchen table. These professional women are highly ambitious and highly educated, enjoying the same lifestyle prerogatives as their male counterparts. They are working longer and marrying later--if they marry at all. They are heading Fortune 500 companies and appearing on the covers of Forbes and Businessweek. They represent a special type of working woman--the kind who don't just punch a clock for a paycheck, but derives self-worth and pleasure from wielding professional power." "At the same time that the gender gap is narrowing, the gulf is widening among women themselves. While blockbuster books such as Lean In focus on women in high-pressure jobs, in reality there are four women in traditionally female roles for every Sheryl Sandberg. In this revealing and deeply intelligent book, Alison Wolf examines why more educated women work longer hours, why having children early is a good idea, and how feminism created a less equal world. Her idea are sure to provoke and surprise as she challenges much of what the liberal and conservative media consider to be women's best interest.").