Every Other Thursday or Profit with Honor

Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists

Author: Ellen Daniell

This book tells the story of a professional problem-solving group that for more than 25 years has empowered its members by providing practical and emotional support. The objective of “Group,” as Ellen Daniell and six other members call their bimonthly gatherings, is cooperation in a competitive world. And the objective of Every Other Thursday is to encourage those who feel isolated or stressed in a work or academic setting to consider the benefits of such a group—a group in which everyone is on your side.

Each of the high-achieving individuals in Group (including members of the National Academy of Sciences, a senior scientist at a prestigious research institute, and university professors and administrators) has found the support of the others to be an essential part of her own success. Daniell provides detailed examples of how members help one another navigate career setbacks or other difficulties. She shows that group support, discussion, and application of common experience bring to light practical solutions and broader perspectives. In an inspirational conclusion, the author offers advice and practical guidelines for those who would like to establish a group of their own.

Publishers Weekly

Molecular biologist Daniell and fellow women scientists created a support network to commiserate and strategize about the difficulties of being female in the still male-dominated world of science. Founded on the precepts of radical psychiatry, the group (called simply Group) gathers every other week with a format that will be familiar to anyone who's sat through a women's group session: time is set aside for each member to discuss issues in her life, and others encourage her to verbalize all of her emotions while offering support. The lesson that a feminine support system is important to a modern career-driven woman is not new, nor is it limited to science. But the book's real failing is that instead of addressing Group members' journeys through science as women, it focuses on the same career roadblocks, personal disasters and need for self-empowerment that one finds in any self-help book ("I am entitled to be myself. I'm entitled to be successful"). Rather than hard-nosed help for aspiring young women scientists, this book, while it includes interesting passages on the machinations of university politics, essentially offers material that should best have remained within the Group. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Part engaging memoir, part career advice, this volume tells the story of "Group," a long-running "professional problem-solving group" of seven women scientists who help each other deal with the challenges inherent in a successful scientific career (e.g., salary discrimination, tenure, managing difficult employees) and provide support for the trials faced in their personal lives. Conceived in the model of radical psychiatry, the group offers a venue for members to help themselves rather than turning to doctors and therapists. Daniell, a scientist, writer, and longtime Group member, follows the personal narratives with a discussion of Group procedures, maintaining the engaging tone that enlivens the entire volume. Chapters are organized around the type of support provided. Although the narrative focuses on women scientists in academic careers, the appeal of this empowering work will go beyond that circle. The support system described would be very valuable in a wide variety of venues. Highly recommended for all academic and public libraries.-Barbarly Korper McConnell, California State Univ., Fullerton Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction : working toward diversity
1	Every other Thursday : a meeting of group	3
2	Evolution : how each of us came to group	17
3	Facing disaster : Ellen's story	35
4	Accepting ... liking ... celebrating : appreciating ourselves and being entitled to success	71
5	A serious mind and a light heart : respecting instinct and personal goals	82
6	Off balance and out of control : managing time and establishing equilibrium	91
7	Flying furniture : choice and change	101
8	Best friends, harshest critics : working with other women	108
9	Life is a limited resource : taking care of ourselves	118
10	Permission to feel : being professional does not mean turning off all emotion	127
11	Boss, mother, friend, role model : working with students and employees	138
12	Putting it out there : writing and giving talks	149
13	Nobody taught us this in school : institutional politics and strategy	161
14	Anticipating changes : growing older with grace	177
15	Going home : interactions with spouse, partner, mother, and children	184
16	Pigs, contracts, and strokes : group process and history	201
17	Maintenance and repair : working to keep group working	227
18	Another change of direction : letting go and moving on	239

Go to: Foundations of Financial Markets and Institutions or Building Community in Schools

Profit with Honor: The New Stage of Market Capitalism

Author: Daniel Yankelovich

This wise and optimistic book examines the rampant scandals that plague American corporations today and shows how companies can reverse the resulting climate of mistrust. By seizing the opportunity to address some of the nation’s—and the world’s—most serious problems, business can strengthen its reputation for integrity and service and advance to a new stage of ethical legitimacy. Daniel Yankelovich, a social scientist and an experienced member of the corporate boardroom, describes the toxic convergence of cultural and business trends that has led inexorably to corporate scandals. Yet he offers reassurance that opportunity exists for positive change. Creative business leaders can advance market capitalism to its next stage of evolution, building upon business norms that simultaneously emphasize the legitimacy of profit making and the importance of the care that companies give to employees, customers, and the larger society.

The book asserts that American culture has abandoned its old tradition of enlightened self-interest, of “doing well by doing good.” A narrow legalism has taken over (“I didn’t break the law; therefore I didn’t do anything wrong”). Yankelovich argues that attempts to deal with such flawed ethical norms by means of more laws and regulations cannot succeed. He offers a series of case histories to show how and why stewardship ethics can strengthen individuals, corporations, the nation, and the world economy.