I received Leticia Latino van-Splunteren's book, Women in Business, through my internship. I am currently a student majoring in marketing and minoring in gender studies, so having the opportunity to review a book about women in business felt like a match made in heaven. I come from a family of women who are influential, empowering, and unstoppable. This said, they are all in the world of public service. My mom is a nurse, my sister, is a teacher, and my other sister is a social worker. I find myself seeking advice from females in business to help guide me along my own path. This is easier said than done because to be honest, I don't know many women in this field personally. And I guess that speaks to a larger issue of the implicit gender bias we have about who can be in business and who can not. That's when Leticia's book essentially fell into my lap.
I was elated when I received this book. I am a senior at Rutgers University and graduation is quickly approaching- which also means the all-encompassing fear of finding a job post-graduation is rapidly
looming over me.
The book is written by Leticia Latino van-Splunteren CEO of Neptuno/SmartTecPort and thirteen other influential businesswomen. The book starts strong by laying out the advantages, challenges, opportunities, and mistakes that women in business make. Right off the bat, we are provided with a guidebook on how to be successful as a woman in the business world. Following that, other empowering authors write about their own experiences defying the odds and overcoming societal barriers that tried to stop them. We learn about the challenges that female business leaders faced and how they beat them.
I feel like Leticia has known me for years and was speaking directly to me, like she was my sister or aunt. She brings up a brilliant point– it is important that women are not buying into the way we are socialized. Women are taught to be nice, passive, and agreeable. As Leticia points out, this does not work in the world of business. She outlines multiple real-world examples of how to actively dismantle this societal norm by being confident, aggressive, positive, and many others. One part that spoke to me personally was her advice to care more about being respected than being liked which is something I am actively trying to work on.
Overall, if you are a young individual about to graduate like me, someone that is already in business, a person that is not even associated with anything in business, or just a human, this book is for you! The reason I don't say this book is for women specifically is because men need to know this book is geared towards them too. It is time to show every single person, regardless of gender, the strides women have made in business.
Here is a link to purchase this book: