The Invisible Expertise on our Business Bookshelf

Written By Sammy Zimmerman

Nearly two years ago now, I published my first book. Sail to Scale is about the big mistakes my co-authors and I have seen leaders make over and over again across a variety of startups and scaleups that we worked at, and that we interviewed for the book.

I’m proud of the book we wrote.

But it wasn’t the book I thought I was going to write…

Over the past two decades, I have co-founded three other women’s organizations, with HiPower being the one I continue to lead today. Clearly, raising the profile of professional women is a topic I care deeply about.  And I certainly have collected many compelling stories I could tell. So, over the years, I’ve toyed with the idea of a book—something about career growth, particularly for women navigating a world within the sea of patriarchy that still surrounds us.

But that project never went further than a few thousand words scattered across a dozen different files.

Before I tell you why, let me share some stats with you.

  • In 2020, of the 200 bestsellingbusiness books, only 17 were written by women. And 17 were written by men named John.

  • A 2023 analysis showed that while women are essentially just as likely to read books authored by women or men, male readers skew significantly towards books written by other men.

Of the few business books written by women in 2020, a significant portion of that small group of books could be categorized as being written for the advancement of women. You might remember top titles that year included

  • Suze Orman (The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+)

  • Brené Brown (Dare to Lead)

I'm the first person to advocate for writing about gender inequity, mentorship and leadership.

But men don’t read books titled “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office” or “Stiletto Networks”. This category of books is derogatorily referred to as "chick lit"— ‍

  • covers featuring high heels,

  • titles invoking glass ceilings,

  • colors in pink print.

Their content and their marketing distinguish them as being "for women" rather than anything a businessman might read.

The messages in these books are being read mostly by the very audience that already agrees with it.

Whether we write, what we write about, and how we package it, either reinforces this divide in the cannon of business literature or helps to tear it down.

There is a lack of women writing about their business acumen in books being read by women and men.

In fact, the issue extends beyond books.

According to The OpEd Project, women are significantly underrepresented in public commentary. Over 70% of op-eds are written by men, and men are quoted nearly 3X as often as women in major news outlets.

The truth is that the stories we tell about the world of business shape the world’s perception of ‍

  • who holds power in business,

  • who has the expertise, and

  • who gets to be seen as credible.

I spent three years planning on writing a book about professional women and the challenges we face.

Instead, I wrote a book about startups and the challenges they face.

Writing publicly about my expertise felt unfamiliar.

When I sat down to write about my expertise in business, I found it hard to turn the tacit knowledge I had built up into a format suited for broad-based public consumption.

I hadn’t developed the muscle to project in the public square about the things I knew, not just about gender, but about business itself.

I was suffering from that ghastly ailment called imposter syndrome -- that continues to plague even the most successful women in professional industries.

So I sought out to change how women feel about putting their voices out into the public square.

It's been nearly two years since we (Maria Fernandez Guajardo, Heather Jerrehian and me) published Sail to Scale. Since then, I've been overwhelmed by the challenge I laid down to our HiPower community.

Here's just a few of the books that have been written by our HiPower community recently.

And more are getting published!!

Today’s world is influenced by what is put out there in the public Zeitgeist.

And if we are not published in the world of business, it reinforces the narrative that business leadership is synonymous with men.

These authors are putting their voices out into the public square and being part of the public business conversation. I am inspired by them and couldn't be more proud to be connected to them and to learn from them.

Sammy Zimmerman
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