How Jane Won: 55 Successful Women Share How They Grew from Ordinary Girls to Extraordinary Women

Christine Whitman, the first woman governor of New Jersey, recounts how she was "more of a problem than a leader" as a kid, but succeeded anyway due to the self-confidence imbued in her by her parents. Sandra Day O'Connor tells of gaining early independence on a cattle ranch and being sent off to school in a distant city with no phone to communicate with her family. Connie Matsui, the daughter of servants, describes how she became the vice president of a pharmaceutical company and the president of the Girl Scouts of America while raising two children. Eileen Collins, NASA astronaut and space shuttle commander, was a shy child who worked her way through college to put more women into space. After a copy of Booker T. Washington's autobiography literally fell on her head, plant physiologist Camellia Okpodu renewed her commitment to finish college despite the racism she confronted there. Mary GrandPre shares how becoming more confident improved her art, which in turn led to her being selected as the illustrator for the Harry Potter books, and news anchor Jane Pauley shares why not making varsity cheerleader in tenth grade was the luckiest thing that ever happened to her. These stories remind us of the qualities that make for success in any life's path, of the unseen gifts in the seeming tragedies, and of the real potential for creating a fulfilling life as a woman with a career and a family. How Jane Won is a terrific gift for the young woman in your life. --Lesley Reed

Product Description
How did fifty-five of today’s most successful women get to where they are?

In her New York Times bestseller, See Jane Win, noted child psychologist Sylvia Rimm and her daughters reported on their three-year survey of 1,000 successful women, distilling their findings for parents to use to give their daughters the same advantages. In this companion volume, How Jane Won, Dr. Rimm and her daughter Sara Rimm-Kaufman present the unique stories of fifty-five true winners, in their own words, breathing life into the principles laid out in See Jane Win and animating the many forms success can take.

Find out how Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine hitman, space shuttle commander Eileen Collins, Harry Potter illustrator Mary GrandPre, novelist Jacquelyn Mitchard, and many others, famous or not, juggled their education and families, parenting and careers. These women offer a bracing new definition of success based not on title or paycheck, but on joy and satisfaction. The knowledge they share will encourage and inspire.

This book deserves more than five stars for providing essential perspectives that women can use to build happier and more successful lives. How Jane Won should be in the hands of all girls and young women. The 55 examples will surely capture elements that echo deep in each reader's heart and mind.

The book is organized to make it easy to use. All of the key points from See Jane Win are included here. If you have not yet read that book, you can simply read this one instead. This book is divided into sections around current career activities: Lawmakers and Adjudicators; Shatterers of Glass Ceilings (mostly businesswomen); Healers and Discoverers; Nurturers; Artists and Musicians; and Communicators.

So, if you are a young woman who likes science, you can read the sections that include women who have pursued scientific careers. If you want to go into business, you can read that section. If you think you want to be an at-home parent, you can read the section about nurturers.

I do suggest that everyone read the whole book at some point. The stories contain many general lessons, even when the career isn't one that you or your daughter might want to choose.

For parents, the nice surprise is how much each woman spoke about her mother and father. You can get a good sense of how those roles are pursued can help . . . or hold a young woman back.

Aside from summarizing the research of 1000 women in See Jane Win, the book is totally divided into brief autobiographical descriptions of the key steps along the way to each woman's success. What surprised me was that these women did see themselves as ordinary girls when young, even when they knew they were very talented in a particular area.

These women were selected in most cases for their current prominence or high degree of success. They are not a cross sample. They are avatars in their fields, in most cases. They range in age from 30 to 80, so you get perspectives from different generations. Because of this approach the book can be helpful to older women, as well, who are thinking about "what next?" at some key point in their lives.

Here are some of the famous women included in the book (in order of their appearance): Christine Todd Whitman, Sandra Day O'Connor, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Cathleen Black, Marva Collins, Patricia Seybold, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Marsha Evans, Eileen Collins, Cady Coleman, Mary GrandPre, Frances Bayless, Pamela Frank, Jane Pauley, Florence Henderson, Catherine Callaway, Lesley Seymour, and Jacquelyn Mitchaud.

Most of the autobiographies are 2-6 pages in length.

Before you become too focused on the celebrities, I often found that the people who I had not known about before had even more profound and moving stories to tell.

Some of the key themes that these women address include: encouragement from parents, friends, and mentors; the need to explore and take risks; an emphasis on education; perseverance in the face of setbacks and obstacles; choosing life partners; arranging to have and raise children; and making one's own unique path that fits oneself.

Few of these women felt that they were destined for success. Many would have described themselves as being unsuccessful in important ways as adolescents. The trials they had to overcome are pretty amazing including physical handicaps, spending time in prisoner of war camps, poverty, prejudice, lack of jobs for women, the enormous load of being a mother and a career person, being a single parent, and interrupted education and careers.

Some will quibble that this book would have benefited from more examples of women who are the at-home parents without a "paying" career. There are only two examples in this category, and these are women who have very active volunteer careers.

Clearly, a missed opportunity was to interview more of the parents, siblings, friends, teachers, mentors, and spouses of these women to get a better flavor of what they exuded that allowed them to garner such remarkable support.

These stories will stay with you for the rest of your life. Be sure to repeat them when it will do the most good!

I also encourage you to think about what you can do to be a good role model for the next generation.

When Jane wins, we all win!


Inspiring Stories of Successful Women   April 17, 2001
20 out of 20 found this review helpful

In "See Jane Win", Dr. Sylvia Rimm and Dr. Sara Rimm-Kaufman studied and reported on 1,100 successful women. The women, who had indicated that they were happy with both their home and career lives, filled out survies about their lives. The results, which included such findings as biggest role models, birth orders, schools attended and activities participated in while young, served parents with information on possible ways to raise daughters. The short anecdotes about several survey participants served girls and young women with inspirational mini-biographies about women who had become what they themselves define as successful.

"How Jane Won", subtitled "55 Successful Women Share How They Grew from Ordinary Girls to Extraordinary Women" includes more autobiographies by such women. The book is divided into six sections of careers: the Lawmakers and Adjudicators, the Shatterers of Glass Ceilings, the Healers and Discoverers, the Nurturers, the Artists and Musicians, and the Communicators. Women telling their life stories range from astranauts to homemakers, and include Christina Whitman (Governor of New Jersey), Nydia M. Velazquez (US Congresswoman), Sandra Day O'Connor, Cathleen Black (President of Hearst Magazines), Eileen COllins (NASA Astrnaut and Space Shuttle Commander), Alexa Canady, M.D. (Pediatric Nerosurgeon), Martha Aarons (Flutist with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra), Jane Pauley (Anchor, NBC News and Dateline), Florence Henderson (Brady Bunch actress), and Jacqauleyn Mitchard (bestselling author).

Although one would fear this book would turn into a Chicken Soup for the Feminist Soul, most of the stories do an amazing job of staying on the practical and real side instead of the corny and romantic one. Most of the stories are insprirational yet helpful. Many girls would be inspired by reading about the lives of these successful women, and many women who wish to advance in their own education or career would also find these stories interesting.

One important thing many women in the book point out is how hard it was for them in the beginning of their career, before women had won many of the rights and status we too often take for granted. Cathleen Black, President of Hearst Magazines, writes "When I talk to teenage girls, it's hard for them to imagine that these opportunities didn't always exist. I dont' know that it's real for them. They're skeptical when I tell them they couldn't have gotten a loan or gone to Harvard in my era." Likewise, Katherine Hudson, President and CEO of Brady Corportation, writes, "When I wrote my resume, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. None of the companies were interested in my doing financial work, despite my gruaduatin first in the class. The salary offers were for about half of what the guys in class were being offered. This was in 1968, before affirmative action."

A positive point about "How Jane Won" is that it advoids the materialism found in "See Jane Win". The biggest critique of that book is that women were defined as successful almost exclusively when they held jobs women were previously unable to or when they made a great amount of money. In "How Jane Won", however, the women who share their stories may or not be financially successful, but they are successful because they are happy. Women who hold "traditional" jobs like teachers, nurses, and homemakers are not excluded like they are in most of "See Jane Win", and this sends the important message that girls can and should do whatever makes them happiest, whether that is becoming a nuclear physicist or a street musician.

One critique that can be made of "How Jane Won", however, is its exclusion of "untraditional" family women: women who do not marry at all or who are lesbians. There is one lesbian whose story is included, as well as a few women who never had children, but besides for this the emphasis seems to be that women are only successful when they are not only happy with their work but when they also have a "typical, all-American" family system. It would be nice to see greater diversity in the See Jane Win series, if there are to be any more in the future.

Instead of being overloaded with cheesiness as one might expect, most of "How Jane Won" is full of practical advice and inspiration. Both girls and parents alike will find themselves liking and rereading certain stories they find most relevant to their lives, and this will positively influence many readers. ...


How Jane Won   May 10, 2002
Christene Nichols (Santa Monica, CA, USA)
This book is an amazingly inspiriting book. The set-up was a good idea. Each woman's story is descried from her eyes and from her perspective. The stories of each of the woman are very different and each unique in their own way. The woman seem to each come from a different background and each to maintain what they wanted to maintain, and to everyone's eyes become successful. I love the fact that many of the women juggle a social life, work life, and have time to run a successful family because many of the women write about their kids and those kids seem to be successful from what is written. The novel is an easy read because there is only a couple pages describing each character but yet, it is interesting because every couple of pages you have a whole new picture and problem at hand. The most inspiring part to this novel was the fact that many of these women came from a disadvantaged background and their success was even more of a special victory. I definitely recommend this novel for people who like to read non-fiction novels because you get in depth with these woman's struggles and their secrets to how to do it. My only complaint is that after reading so many stories they tend to get a little boring because you know each one of them will make it and succeed. Also not very much is discussed concerning the woman's jobs. The novel doesn't go into very much detail describing what exactly they do, where as more time is spent on describing they life they lived before and what they did and the life after because of this " job". Other than those two complaints the novel was amazing.


Good book to read   March 14, 2003
Emily (Santa Monica, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This was a great book for women, especially young women, to read. It really has positive feeling throughout the entire book that would keep anyones spirit high.


Refreshing   May 28, 2003
Jamilah (La, CA USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

This was an extraordinary book, very insightful. It let me know things are still possible and that dreams come true. This book tells you about other people that are very similar to yourself. The great thing about this book is that it displays all aspects of life. This book is definitely on my bookshelf.