Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace

Smith (correspondent to the NPR program Planet Money) translates Machiavellian strategy for women at work. She highlights various women like Sallie Krawcheck, the so-called She-Wolf of Wall Street, and Olympian Alysia Montano. She describes her book as “a kind of playbook for women to achieve power and prosperity in the workplace,” exploring topics like money, confidence, and respect. She takes care to include women of color and LGBTQ+ people in the conversation and also addresses sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement. Lessons from Machiavelli’s The Prince are inserted throughout the text; examples include reading the room, strategic softening, and bringing one’s own chair (so as not to be left out). She describes these 16th-century rules in modern ways (e.g., “fake it ’till you make it”; “just do it”). On mentoring, her advice is: be the mentor you want to see in the world, use the almighty network, and be prepared. She ends with “A Lady’s Guide to Negotiation” and pitfall alerts. The notes section yields many sources to follow up on.