Chase your dreams is book's message for women at work

By ELLEN READ AND NZPA

Thirty-seven per cent of business owners are women, and a book launched this week aims to lift that figure even higher.

Woman2Woman features the personal stories of dozens of women with tips and checklists and advice such as balancing family and work. There are sections on finding the best job, winning at work, and achieving financial independence.

Co-author June McCabe, who heads corporate affairs for the book's sponsor, Westpac, says it is about encouraging everyone to chase their dreams.

"It's about sending the lift down for others to come up - once we have reach certain self-determined levels of success. For women, when the door closes, we climb in the window."

Alison Quesnel, chief executive of Blackmores, offers advice on the value of mentoring, and World fashion label owner Denise L'Estrange Corbet talks about the stress of being responsible for staff.

"You find that you're a mother, you're a father, you're a listener, you're a psychologist, you're a psychiatrist, and you're all those different things rolled into one."

Barbara Annan tells how she coped after her husband died, leaving her three children and a Central Otago merino property to care for.



With a farm manager and plenty of advice from locals, she made it work and went on to set up an advisory board to help others.

Emerald Group managing director Diane Foreman writes about how New Zealanders need to change their attitudes about business.

"We need to say publicly that it's okay to succeed. We need to honour our business heroes such as David Levene, Ralph Norris and Doug Myers."

Women from other fields add their voices too. Prime Minister Helen Clark urges women to "see what's possible with will, desire, and a belief in yourself", and the Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, tellsof succeeding through "sheer bloody-mindedness" against expectations that she should become a nurse or a teacher.

Dunedin Mayor Sukhi Turner talks about how her desire to raise her children meant putting off a career but later enhanced it.

"I realised the best training for public life was being a mother and a housewife, with the associated multitasking and mental gymnastics."

*Woman2Woman is published by Random House. Copies are available only from sponsor Westpac, but it will go on general release early next year.