Women Walking the Corporate Tightrope: Depictions of Men and Women’s Work Relationships in Success-at-Work Books

Abstract

Women’s empowerment and “success at work” self-help workshops, webinars, and advice books proliferate in our neoliberal economy. These initiatives purport to help women navigate workplaces and overcome their limitations to be more successful at work. Through a qualitative content analysis of 15 advice books published from 2013 to 2020, this article analyzes how women’s and men’s work relationships are depicted in popular press career advice books that are marketed for women. We identify three main themes. First, men are described as baffled by women’s “strange ways,” so women are warned to be aware of men’s uneasiness and tread carefully in their work relationships. Second, men are depicted as enemies, yet women are told to rely on powerful men to achieve success. Third, women are instructed to ignore and downplay sexism in their workplace interactions. We conceptualize the work that women are expected to do as “tightrope labor,” in which women must carefully navigate contradictory gender expectations. Women are expected to walk a tightrope with (1) handling men’s discomfort with women; (2) identifying “menemies” and mentors; and (3) managing sexism. We argue that relationship depictions in career advice fault women for career failures, burden them with extra labor, and bolster neoliberal feminist rhetoric.