Own It by Sallie Krawcheck
For my July book of the month, I decided to read Own It by Sallie Krawcheck. With my personal reading list, I have a lot of self-help and self-improvement books on there and Own It has been on my list for quite some time!
My introduction to Sallie Krawcheck came just over a year ago when I attended her seminar that was a part of the Girl Boss Rally. Her series was all about the power of women at work, and one of her biggest life goals is to improve the financial literacy of women. Pretty powerful and ambitious stuff, amirite? In just a 40 minute session, I learned more applicable information than I had ever learned in my plethora of finance courses throughout college.
What I love about Sallie Krawcheck is that she is specifically for Women! Sure, men could probably take some of her words and apply them to themselves, but her overall goal is to empower women financially. So, naturally, after attending her session at the Girl Boss Rally last summer, I added her book Own It to my reading list.
Alright, so let’s get to the review. Overall, I found this book to be very helpful. Krawcheck gave sound and applicable tips and advice that I certainly jotted down in my own notes section of my iPhone. Own It is a book designed to educate women about owning their power in the workspace and in their careers in general. She discusses interviews, workplace culture, career changes and shifts, work-life balance, gender stereotypes and discrepancies in the workplace, and, of course, the power of women’s money.
Each of these sections were backed with anecdotes of Krawcheck’s personal experiences, most of which I found difficult to relate to as a major chunk of her career and life centered around her being a White woman working on Wall Street. Don’t get me wrong, there were anecdotes I could apply to myself, especially those that truly were moments of gender inequality.
Although I loved a lot of the advice in this book, I found myself having to take everything with a grain of salt from the very beginning for two reasons. First, some of her points cannot be applicable to women who do not work in traditional workplace environments. A lot of her anecdotes came from her experiences in a classic office-space in Wall Street of New York City. While this was her truth -as it is for most authors- I just had to remember that her story isn’t how it is for everybody.
Secondly, the biggest flaw I found in this book is of no fault to Krawcheck, but it is something I, as a Black, Mexican, and Native American Woman always have to be conscious of. This, of course, is that this is the advice coming from a White Woman. I have no issues with this, except for the fact that she never once addressed her privilege or the fact that her White privilege likely played a role in a lot of her career mobility.
For instance, she literally has a line at the beginning of the book where she’s referencing the sacrifices her parents took to give their kids the most, and states, “It hurt, but they [took out loans for us] because they knew that with an education we had the opportunity to accomplish anything we wanted. With no limits. And there was never any question of whether my sister and I could achieve as much as our brothers, or whether we could achieve it while being ourselves, including being feminine” (Krawcheck, 32).
While this is all fine and dandy, I couldn’t help but imagine that even when POCs receive an education, they couldn’t “accomplish anything” they wanted simply because of their race. And that’s something that I wish Krawcheck would have addressed. That she was able to accomplish everything she has, without the natural obstacle that so many POCs have due to their darker complexion.
So, with that being said, I took her advice, but with most of it, I had to tweak it to be something socially acceptable for a Woman of my multiple, non-White races and ethnicities.
Overall, I did really like this book. There were some really great lessons, my favorite being the lesson to choose a workplace that has an environment and culture where you can not only be your true authentic self but where being yourself and showcasing your diverse and different opinions is celebrated and compensated. You want to be in a workplace where you are comfortable but also challenged. That is something worth applying to any Woman!
Though I did find flaws in Own It, I would still recommend this book to all of the women out there pursuing their careers at any age. It’s never too early or too late to claim your power in the workplace. And as Sallie Krawcheck says, Own It!