Craving books not chocolate this Easter? Then forget eggs and hot cross buns. Here are some great new reads to fuel your mind and get stuck into over the Easter break, from leadership tips to the history of CWA NSW and Wendy McCarthy's inspiring memoir.
Arrive + Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership
By Susan MacKenty Brady, Janet Foutty and Dr Lynn Perry Wooten.
How do you thrive as a formidable leader while combating systemic barriers that add to the complexity of the challenges you face?
The leadership book Arrive and Thrive from Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership’s Susan MacKenty Brady, Deloitte’s Janet Foutty and Simmons University President, Dr Lynn Perry Wooten, is an impactful guide for women in leadership positions.
Featuring personal stories from executives at today’s most successful organisations, Arrive and Thrive peels back the curtain on how to overcome obstacles through intentional practices to help you flourish.
The paradigm for women for far too long has been about surviving if you’re lucky enough to arrive at the top. In this book the authors set out seven ‘impactful practices for arriving and thriving’, to help you grow as a person, become a more effective leader, and champion change in your community. They are
- Investing in Your Best Self: Lead from the best part of yourself―and ensure you tend to your mind, body, and spirit for continual renewal.
- Embracing Authenticity: With intention and ease, bring your whole self to work.
- Cultivating Courage: Commit to action, alongside your fear of doing so.
- Fostering Resilience: Keep up with the pace and intensity while overcoming setbacks and emerging stronger than before.
- Inspiring a Bold Vision: Enroll others in a mission that awakens their spirit and desire to create a stronger future.
- Creating a Healthy Team Environment: Create an environment that is supportive, collaborative, and healthy.
- Committing to the Work of an Inclusive Leader: Create the culture of inclusion and advancing equitable outcomes needed for high performance.
For more visit arriveandthrive.com
Don’t be too Polite, Girls: A Memoir
By Wendy McCarthy
Educator, activist, agent of change - this is the memoir of the life and career of one of Australia's most influential women.
For more than 50 years, Wendy McCarthy has been on the leading edge of feminism and corporate and public life in this country and her trailblazing advocacy and leadership have made her a widely respected and revered figure. Wendy is a woman who shaped her times as much as she was shaped by them, and now, at 80 years of age, she shares her remarkable life and achievements, and the lessons she learned - and taught us all.
From sheltered country schoolgirl to relentless campaigner for abortion and contraception, from passionate teacher to lifelong advocate for education, to smashing that glass ceiling again and again and showing the way to subsequent generations of women, Wendy has championed change across the public, private and community sectors - in education, family planning, human rights, public health, overseas aid and development, conservation, heritage, media and the Arts.
This inspiring and enlightening memoir is filled with cautionary tales and insider stories about being female in Australia - as well as a few helpful survival tips.
$34.99, Allen and Unwin
The Women Who Changed Country Australia:
By Liz Harfull
This book, celebrating 100 years of the Country Women's Association of New South Wales, is a compelling and well-researched account of the organisation - its beginnings, its remarkable achievements and the indomitable women who have driven each one of its many successes.
In 1922 a group of determined women from both the city and the country joined forces to change the lives of Australian families in the bush. Many had found their voices campaigning for the right to vote. Now they had no intention of sitting quietly at home while women and children suffered and died in their thousands from preventable causes.
One hundred years on, the iconic Country Women's Association is famous for making scones, stitching handicrafts and raising money for worthy causes. But there is so much more to this national treasure.
Refusing to give up or sit back and wait for governments to act, the CWA has always taken a forthright approach to getting things done. And, despite its conservative reputation, it has often pursued radical agendas ahead of their time.
In the 1920s the CWA built hospitals and baby health clinics. In the 1930s it worked to save the Australian wool industry and encouraged women to take an interest in international affairs. During the Second World War it became a household name for reliability in a crisis. In the 1950s it set up branches in Aboriginal communities. A decade later it challenged public perceptions of mental illness. During the early 2000s it protested against new coal mines.
In The Women Who Changed Country Australia best-selling author Liz Harfull reveals how the CWA struggled into existence, beset by clashing personalities and moments of high drama. In fitting tribute, it celebrates the CWA's astonishing achievements and the remarkable women who have led it, while coping with their own personal tragedies.
$49.99, Murdoch Books