My first book, “Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing the Way America Works,” will be out on Jan. 5! The idea started with a story I wrote for TIME magazine about the women of the Senate coming together during the government shutdown to restart the negotiations to reopen the government when none of the men would talk to each other. What interested me about that episode is it was the first time that women made up 20% of the Senate and they ended up producing 75% of the major legislation that passed the Senate that session. Turns out, there’s a huge body of research that shows, whether it’s a legislative body, a corporate board, a Navy ship, or an appellate court, that when women reach between 20-30% it’s a tipping point and they begin to really change how things are done. My book looks at where we’re reaching that tipping point —all three branches of the government—and the areas where we are falling short such as Silicon Valley and Wall Street and why it’s important for us to get to critical mass across the board. My whole life, I always thought I’d never live to see parity; turns out women don’t need to get to parity to be heard— to make a difference— and we are on the cusp of attaining that powerful milestone is so many areas of the workforce.
The book includes interviews with Hillary Clinton, Carly Fiorina, the women of the Senate, Nancy Pelosi and many women in the House, former Justice Patricia Wald, cabinet secretaries, CEOs, generals, police chiefs, Hollywood producers and many more. Plus the intro has a Deerfield cameo!
Available for pre-order on Amazon.
JNS
Jay Newton-Small
1993
