The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women

Yes!

Women who triumph don't follow the rules; they flaunt them.

Harriet Rubin has studied the great female heroes in the wars of intimacy andpublic life, and distilled their behavior into a plan of action. Whetherconfronting lovers, mothers, bosses, or competitors, "The Princessa" is aguide for the woman who feels she deserves far more than she has gotten throughcompromise. While women have been socialized to avoid conflict, to bepeacemakers, caretakers, and nurturers, Rubin shows how those veryskills--sensitivity, emotional depth, and selflessness--can be codified into anew strategy of power. "The Princessa" imparts inspiration and wisdomfrom history's great divas, poets, saints, sinners, and artists, as well asfrom leaders of the most important social movements in our time--women who, with the Furies inside them, in a spirit of justice and outrageousness, established their own rules of power.

Just as Machiavelli showed the prince how to use conflict in order to establishcontrol, Rubin shows why women must act more like women. "Think of mothersrisking everything to defend their young, " writes Rubin. "Think of womenovercoming all odds for love." She shows how women, playing by men's rules, have only reinforced their own weakness. So long as the gender wars are wagedon male turf, women will always be fighting a losing battle. It's time to win.Whatever your battlefield, "The Princessa" will incite you to act like awoman, fight like a woman, and live, at last, by your own rules.

Harriet Rubin has worked in publishing for twenty years. In 1989 she foundedCurrency, where she has published the works of leadingexecutives, economists, management gurus, and CEOs. She has written for the "New York Time" s, the "Wall Street Journal," "Publishers Weekly," and women's magazines.She lives in New York City.