The Confidence Code

The Science and Art of Self-Assurance - What Women Should Know

By: Katty Kay, Claire Shipman

Narrated by: Sandy Rustin

New York Times Bestseller

Following the success of Lean In and Why Women Should Rule the World, the authors of the bestselling Womenomics provide an informative and practical guide to understanding the importance of confidence—and learning how to achieve it—for women of all ages and at all stages of their career.

Working women today are better educated and more well qualified than ever before. Yet men still predominate in the corporate world. In The Confidence Code, Claire Shipman and Katty Kay argue that the key reason is confidence.

Combining cutting-edge research in genetics, gender, behavior, and cognition—with examples from their own lives and those of other successful women in politics, media, and business—Kay and Shipman go beyond admonishing women to ""lean in.""Instead, they offer the inspiration and practical advice women need to close the gap and achieve the careers they want and deserve.

Well-written, unclear how actionable

I enjoyed listening to The Confidence Code, but afterwards when I tried to think of what I'd do differently, I came up empty-handed. This may be because I'm not quite the right audience. While I found the parts of the book that painted lack of confidence as a real issue very compelling, I didn't take away too many next steps for my own life, except perhaps "Call out women you see doing these things." Since I can't change my genes, and can't get a different mother, I'd have liked more clear-cut To Do's for the already-adult. It's possible they were there and I missed them, but I listened to the book twice to be sure, and nothing jumped out at me on the second runthrough. That said, I'm very grateful they wrote the book because it does such a good job of drawing attention to the very real issue.

Hoped for more practical advice

I do love the concept of the book and sharing the science behind confidence. Having that basic understanding is important to get ourselves to the next level. I had hoped more practical advice and tips on managing our perception of confidence and how others perceive us.

Enjoyable, but not that deep

This book was impressively researched and the narrator had a great, clean delivery. There were a couple things that stood out to me:
1) Virtually all of the interviews in this book are from women who are famous or wildly successful in their fields. This isn't incredibly relatable to me - would have loved to hear from more "regular" women who were insecure earlier and life and built up confidence to move up in their field. I get that it was from a good place/supposed to be inspirational but to me it felt a little alienating.
2) I'm white but I noticed not a lot of interviews from women of color. They were there, but the book definitely centered whiteness. Would have loved to see it be more inclusive.
3) They do talk about how confidence is formed in childhood and I would have loved to see more about that. Lots of interesting points they bring up especially towards the end of the book felt too short - I was left feeling like I wish they had explored ideas deeper, addressing things without talking in depth about how to work through them.

Overall this is a good "confidence 101" book if this is your first time reading something like this. For me it left something to be desired, but I recognize that lots of women will probably feel differently. I did like it!

Interesting Read

Goodv information but would have liked more of an action plan for developing my more confidec;E.

Amazing for men and women a must read!

Thanks for doing all the work word to show the world all of are great strengths thru all your great teachings! 💕