Year Published: 2002
As a rule, I don't read self-help books. I'm not against self-improvement by any means, but the idea that you could read a book and suddenly realize your self-worth, or find out how to snag a spouse, is pretty absurd to me. In general, I think the best way to learn about life is to live it.
But the title of Barbara Stanny's book grabbed my attention, and I found myself unable to leave the library without checking it out. The idea of an entire book about women who make what only men are supposed to make was fascinating to me.
Stanny's book doesn't qualify as social science, but if it did, it would be a snowball study; she identified some "six-figure women" and then asked them to help her identify others. Because she doesn't care what, exactly, the women do, her sample gives a refreshingly unconventional picture of wealthy women. So while most are financial, legal, or marketing gurus, a few women read tarot cards, and one is a matchmaker. And because they have to be earning this money through work, the book is happily free of wealthy women who sit on their butts and collect from a trust fund. Most of the women are from middle class or lower-middle class backgrounds, and it's intriguing to watch them grapple with making more than their parents ever did.
There are sections of the book that I would like to photocopy and distribute to all my female friends. In particular, when Stanny compares "underearners" (women who make less than they should, either by virtue of their education or their experience) to her six-figure women, I had to restrain myself from running to the copy machine. Here's an example:
Whether it's family messages, personal experience, or religious indoctrination, many underearners genuinely believe money is tainted, materialism is bad, and there's something virtuous about surviving on a shoestring. According to this line of reasoning, they are much better people for rejecting financial gain . . . . Like it or not, money affects virtually every area of your life. Lack of it leads to dependency and hardship. It can limit your access to health care and lifestyle choices. It can keep you in an unhappy marriage and an unsatisfying job. It perpetuates the cycle of poverty and debt, of discontent and chronic stress.
I really would like to send that message to every woman I know. (The cleverest among you may note that I've just done exactly that by quoting it.) Too many girls and women I've met are blasé about their earning potential and investment regime, because they believe that family money or a future husband's money will "save" them. To put it mildly, this is a bad strategy. We all like to think our future (or current!) marriage won't fail, but statistics indicate otherwise. And crises do happen, regardless of your position in life.
Anyway, proselytizing aside, Secrets of Six-Figure Women is at its best when it is addressing the daily concerns of regular American women in this fashion. Unfortunately, the rest of the book is, on the whole, flaccid and simplistic. Stanny relies heavily on quoting well-known figures in just about every area of culture (including, and I'm not kidding, T.S. Eliot, who, I'm fairly certain, had no idea of his words being taken in such a way) and on quasi-absurd statements about luck and "higher powers" and the universe just sort of stepping in to help those who've decided to become well-paid. Surveying a group of six-figure women and asking them if it really does work to rely partly on luck or the universe (and then pushing that strategy on average women) is like asking a group of clergy folk if they relied on God to help them choose their career. It's a biased sample by design, and to draw any meaningful conclusions about success in a larger sense is circular and misleading.
Recommended? She has a book called Prince Charming Isn't Coming that's all about financial self-reliance, and I suspect that would be a more worthwhile investment, so to speak. I'll try to get my hands on it: stay tuned.
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