Different and unique leaderships
A volume collecting seven conversations with seven women who have reached important milestones
Leaderships that are not better but different than male leaderships – unique leaderships. It’s on this observation, which should not be taken for granted, that Tonia Cartolano – journalist and keen observer of real life – developed her LeadHers a collection of seven conversations with seven women who have chosen to talk about themselves without filters and mediations. These are not interviews but rather stories, which illustrate life experiences, successes and failures, a willingness to do and, above all, an image and content depicting women in a significantly different manner than the two (erroneous) extremes that are still used to describe women nowadays: subservient to men on one side, and striving to be better and more than men at all costs on the other. Notions that are found everywhere, in society and in companies, in organisations, in associations, and that damage both women and men.
Cartolano, on the other hand, writes, “Not a fresco of rebellious heroines, contemporary Wonder Women, but women who tell us who they were and who they are, what they used to dream and what they are dreaming now that they are older. Not a catalogue of exemplary women, yet these are educational stories, models to be imitated, an inspiration to other women, especially younger women who need this, because the path to women’s success is short, recent and not to be taken for granted.” And further, “The stories you will read are not lectures on female leadership.”
Thus, the almost 200 pages (including an original foreword by cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi) fly by, with the stories of Elisabetta Belloni (Director of the Italian Department of Information for Security, DIS, since 2021), Tania Cagnotto (European diver with the most wins of her career so far), Elisabetta Franchi (designer at the head of a company that earned €130 million in 2021), Gaia Pigino (Associate Head of the Structural Biology Research Centre at the Human Technopole), Titti Postiglione (Deputy Head of the Italian Civil Protection Department), Speranza Scappucci (conductor and pianist, the first Italian woman to direct an opera at the Teatro alla Scala of Milan), Paola Severino (lawyer, the first woman Minister of Justice in Italy and first woman rector at LUISS University of Rome, President of the Italian National School of Administration since 2021).
Tonia Cartolano’s book is packed with information yet very readable. Dialogues without questions that nonetheless provide a lot of answers and incredibly valuable advice: “a talented woman can succeed as much as a man. Without prejudices, differences or categories. And, above all, without trying to behave like men.” The author also adds, “Female leadership does not mean rising to the top of a multinational or the world, but to the top of one’s own world.”
If carefully read, Tonia Cartolano could make many women and men angry, and that is what makes it a good read.
LeadHers
Tonia Cartolano
Santelli Editore, 2022
A volume collecting seven conversations with seven women who have reached important milestones
Leaderships that are not better but different than male leaderships – unique leaderships. It’s on this observation, which should not be taken for granted, that Tonia Cartolano – journalist and keen observer of real life – developed her LeadHers a collection of seven conversations with seven women who have chosen to talk about themselves without filters and mediations. These are not interviews but rather stories, which illustrate life experiences, successes and failures, a willingness to do and, above all, an image and content depicting women in a significantly different manner than the two (erroneous) extremes that are still used to describe women nowadays: subservient to men on one side, and striving to be better and more than men at all costs on the other. Notions that are found everywhere, in society and in companies, in organisations, in associations, and that damage both women and men.
Cartolano, on the other hand, writes, “Not a fresco of rebellious heroines, contemporary Wonder Women, but women who tell us who they were and who they are, what they used to dream and what they are dreaming now that they are older. Not a catalogue of exemplary women, yet these are educational stories, models to be imitated, an inspiration to other women, especially younger women who need this, because the path to women’s success is short, recent and not to be taken for granted.” And further, “The stories you will read are not lectures on female leadership.”
Thus, the almost 200 pages (including an original foreword by cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi) fly by, with the stories of Elisabetta Belloni (Director of the Italian Department of Information for Security, DIS, since 2021), Tania Cagnotto (European diver with the most wins of her career so far), Elisabetta Franchi (designer at the head of a company that earned €130 million in 2021), Gaia Pigino (Associate Head of the Structural Biology Research Centre at the Human Technopole), Titti Postiglione (Deputy Head of the Italian Civil Protection Department), Speranza Scappucci (conductor and pianist, the first Italian woman to direct an opera at the Teatro alla Scala of Milan), Paola Severino (lawyer, the first woman Minister of Justice in Italy and first woman rector at LUISS University of Rome, President of the Italian National School of Administration since 2021).
Tonia Cartolano’s book is packed with information yet very readable. Dialogues without questions that nonetheless provide a lot of answers and incredibly valuable advice: “a talented woman can succeed as much as a man. Without prejudices, differences or categories. And, above all, without trying to behave like men.” The author also adds, “Female leadership does not mean rising to the top of a multinational or the world, but to the top of one’s own world.”
If carefully read, Tonia Cartolano could make many women and men angry, and that is what makes it a good read.
LeadHers
Tonia Cartolano
Santelli Editore, 2022