How to Claim Your Space as a Woman: A Guide to Self-Empowerment

Risa: All great

United States on Oct 27, 2023

Reagan: What a great book that every girl and woman should have in their toolbox to refer back to! There are strategies in this book that I'd learn while in business school decades ago, but have since forgotten. There were strategies that were new to me. All of the strategies have the capacity to change lives for the better. Having started this book only a few days ago, I've already been able to see a difference as I work to change outdated and ineffective behaviors. It's rare for me to recommend a book while I'm still reading it, and honestly, it's rare for me to reach out to others and say, "you have to read this book!". But, that's exactly what I've done with this one.

A side note - I'm grateful to the author for using such inclusive language in her writing.

United States on Dec 07, 2022

Lisa G: I have to start by saying I'm a people pleaser. Unfortunately, this tends to lead to also being a doormat, and often getting my feelings hurt, increased anxiety, and uncontrollable tears. Its frustrating to wear your heart on your sleeve and exhausting for everyone around me, I'm sure. I feel like reading this book, and also hearing the author's background and how she overcame trying to be as small as she could to taking up her rightful place in the world, is something I needed to hear. Its real, its gritty. Eliza doesn't pull punches. I feel like I absorb power through osmosis as I'm reading it. I've been recommending it to friends who are like me and feel like they've kind of lost their way, maybe due to divorce or disability or some other big change in their lives, and feel like they're not as important as their spouse or children, or maybe their children have become adults. If this is you, get this book, and get it now! If this sounds like it could be someone you love? Buy them this book. It is incredibly empowering. For years, I've been looking for some magic trick to stop me from breaking into a tearful anxiety attack during confrontations. These days, I'm less tearful and...

United States on Apr 28, 2022

Nancy Dafoe: “Stand Tall. Raise Your Voice. Be Heard.”

Great, practical advice. Like stepping into a lively, honest conversation with a “claim your space pro,” reading Eliza VanCort’s new book is what working women want and need. "A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space" is exactly what the title predicates, and readers will not be disappointed. The black and red lettering on the cover are proud commands: “Stand Tall. Raise Your Voice. Be Heard.” But they are essentially internal commands, coming from the woman reminding herself, giving herself permission to respond powerfully within a patriarchy that has yet to relinquish its grip on power.

VanCort’s book is a fast, easy, fun (there are cartoons and graphics!), and highly insightful read. When you are a working woman, you are likely juggling many responsibilities and demands on your time. This book is not one of the demands. Rather, it is an ally for women and people of color. In fact, "Claiming Space" offers many helpful suggestions for ways in which women can “forge connections” and “claim space collaboratively.” VanCort is not suggesting a you go in as a “one-woman army,” but, rather, she instructs how...

United States on Jun 08, 2021

C. Sander: This book is marketed as revolutionary, and in so many ways it is. For me reading it, the critical message was one of an internal revolution inside me as an individual and as a woman, about flipping the script in my head - and then acting out in the real world in subtly but importantly different ways. I loved how this book gave concrete examples - “If you find yourself saying this a lot, say this instead.”

What was equally important to me, was that everything she suggests doing, is entirely appropriate for the workplace world. Despite the fact that she embraces the CFB label, following her script isn't likely to land you with a pink slip for crazy behavior (unless you have a completely old school misogynist for a boss, in which case long term you are better off) - in fact it's actually more likely to land you a promotion.

It's revolutionary, not because she is suggesting acting outside the overall norms of the workplace world - but because she is breaking down for us the secret code, the unwritten rules of power dynamics in professional relationships, so that we too can begin to claim our professional space.

The first half of the book gives lots of easy to...

United States on May 05, 2021