Title: The Confidence Code
Author: Katty Kay & Claire Shipman
Published: April 15th 2014
Pages: 256
Genre: Self Help, Nonfiction, Business, Feminism, Psychology
Publisher: HarperBusiness
Listened to on Hoopla
Goodreads Description:
New York Times Bestseller
Following the success of Lean In and Why Women Should Rule the World, the authors of the bestselling Womenomics provide an informative and practical guide to understanding the importance of confidence—and learning how to achieve it—for women of all ages and at all stages of their career.
Working women today are better educated and more well qualified than ever before. Yet men still predominate in the corporate world. In The Confidence Code, Claire Shipman and Katty Kay argue that the key reason is confidence.
Combining cutting-edge research in genetics, gender, behavior, and cognition—with examples from their own lives and those of other successful women in politics, media, and business—Kay and Shipman go beyond admonishing women to “lean in.”Instead, they offer the inspiration and practical advice women need to close the gap and achieve the careers they want and deserve.
Things I enjoyed about this book:
The Confidence Code highlights a very important subject that affects both men and women. There were many great “one-liners” in this book that gave me perspective. One of them being, “Confidence is turning thought into action.” I also enjoyed learning some”fun facts” along the way. The science of the different genes discussed I found very intriguing and now I would love to be tested to see what I way I would lean towards. I found a lot of the information beneficial and allowed me to self reflect and plan ways to change my behavior to continually foster my own confidence.
The Things I Didn’t Enjoy:
Katty and Claire did toe the line between what is scientific and a nice antidote. I did find myself rolling my eyes a few times and finding their stories to be very superficial. The Confidence Code was also very depressing at times. This is not necessarily a HOW TO book, but a book to make you self aware. Stem was mentioned throughout the novel- which is awesome- one thing that was brought up was that if girls were more confident in themselves they would do better at math. I had to laugh out loud, because I was very confident in my ability to learn math and but even with my confidence, I failed math classes multiple times. That was one things, I just couldn’t be convinced of!
MRS BIRDS WORDS REVIEW
Katty Kay and Claire Shipman deserves four out of five bird feathers for The Confidence Code. I understand that I am 4 years late to the game on this book but I did find it changing the way I think. Reflecting on my life I realized I was much more confident in High School than in my later years. They gave the example of girls wanting to run for Student Council but decided not to because boys were running and they knew they would win. I ran for Student Council in Elementary, Junior High and High School. I didn’t win every race, but it did not once cross my mind that I had been beat out because I was a girl. I don’t know if my reaction today would be the same? The question this book made me ask introspectivly was have I become less confident or more aware of the world around me?
I felt as a mother of two girls, this book helped me gain tools to better raise confident young women, who won’t shy away from an opportunity and will learn to speak up and be heard without fear of “second guessing” themselves.
I love the messaged about learning to fail and learning to do it fast. Failure is vital to gaining success. Overall, I would definitely read/listen to this book. I think it helps the reader recognize where they are holding themselves back and allows them to open new doors. My one caveat would be to read knowing that even though there is scientific knowledge in this it is written by journalists not someone who is actually well versed in those subjects.
Parent’s Guide:
It is a clean book, understanding might be hard for a teen, but from what I saw they have published The Confidence Code for girls, which I haven’t read, but it contains watered down information for that age group, I would RECOMMEND it to any female teen!
That can be purchased here!
(C)LVB2018
Mrs Birds Words 
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