See Jane Win: The Rimm Report on How 1,000 Girls Became Successful Women

by Sylvia B. Rimm

Book Overview

Noted child psychologist Sylvia Rimm, along with her daughters, a research psychologist and a pediatric oncology researcher, conducted a three-year survey of more than a thousand successful women to uncover what elements of their childhood and adolescence contributed to their success -- and how today's parents can give their own daughters the same advantages. Should you encourage your daughter's competitive streak? How important are social skills?...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609805606
• ISBN13: 9780609805602
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (CA)
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Helpful Hints for Being a Better Father to Your Daughter

As a father of a 14 year old daughter, I am always looking for ways to be more helpful to her. As you can imagine, my helpful ideas are not always well received despite my best intentions. I was delighted to see this quantitative characterization of the circumstances that led to the maturation of successful, happy women. I read with equal enthusiasm the parts for fathers and mothers, and have shared key aspects of this book with both my wife and daughter. As someone who believes in high standards, I was relieved to find that that was a good thing to do (whew!), and learned some new ways to provide those high standards in more supportive and comfortable ways for my daughter. Casual conversations usually do not keep my attention for long, but this book taught me that these are important to my daughter. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much our relationship improved when I put more effort and attention into these occasions. Perhaps the biggest (happy) surprise was to see how much longer my daughter works on her homework than these hard-working, successful women did when they were young. I felt much more relaxed about my daughter's prospects, as a result. Usually books about parenting leave me feeling more uncomfortable than when I started. But not this one! On the negative side, I found two important weaknesses in the book. The authors kindly provide a nice summary in the beginning. However, the summary doesn't quite capture the lessons in the book in the same way that the advice and stories in the chapters do. Secondly, a better methodology for this study would have been to equally study women who had unhappy lives with successful careers and women with happy lives and unsuccessful careers to see what is truly different about the rearing of those who are both happy and successful. Perhaps there will be a second book that will develop that point. In the meantime, I recommend this book to everyone who cares about young women's happiness, including the young women themselves. You are bound to pick up some self-confidence about what you are doing right, and some ideas for how to improve where you may not be.You can do it!

Success and the Adolescent Girl

Since the feminist movement began over thirty years ago, women have been fighting to reconcile their personal lives with their professional aspirations. Although the movement signaled the public awakening to the increase of women working outside the home, not since that time have researchers distinctly explored the true effects of this radical social change in America. Dr. Rimm and her daughters have compiled a groundbreaking quantitative analysis of over 1000 women in various fields. While initially intending to study only women who have achieved success in the traditionally male-dominated fields, ie. law and medicine, they expanded their focus to include women who reported a high level of satisfaction and fulfillment in both their personal and professional lives and are employed in a traditionally female-dominated field. Underlying this shift in focus was the outcry from these women who were insistent that they be represented and symbolic of the choice that the feminist movement inherently supported as women began to reprioritize their lives, whether out of necessity or not. Interestingly enough, this additional criterion for satisfaction ended up excluding many of the women in the typically male-dominated fields who were not happy, often due to long hours at work, which attributed to their dissatisfaction at home. Categorizing the various careers of the participants into five distinct areas; the power brokers, communicators, healers and discoverers, artists and musicians, and the nurturers, Dr. Rimm provides and effective study by comparing and contrasting the life paths, paying special attention to the childhood and adolescence of these women. By zoning in on specific attributes of these time periods, she takes into consideration what effect the following have had on the motivation and aptitude of women who have gone on to become high achievers who are emotionally fulfilled to boot: which parent the women identified with, subjects they excelled in, did they experience a decline in proficiency in math and science when they reached middle school, type of school attended (private, parochial or public) and involvement in extracurricular activities. Despite differences among the groups concerning these elements of their cognitive and social development, most of the women who participated identified with the same descriptors of themselves growing up: most were labeled brainy, independent and creative by their peers and families, and as such tended to view themselves in the same way. Incredibly insightful and helpful to parents and educators alike, See Jane Run does more than emit findings. Biographical stories of a handful of the women who participated are inspiring and discouraging at the same time. Especially for adolescent girls these stories can act as powerful reminders that the glass ceiling still exists, but as a result of such pioneers as Rabbi Miriam Kane and Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Ana Casa, the term "male-dominated" almost seems pr

A Useful Guide for Fathers of Daughters

Having a 14 year old daughter, I am always looking for ways to be more helpful to her. As you can imagine, my helpful ideas are not always well received despite my best intentions. I was delighted to see this quantitative characterization of how successful, happy women arrived. I read with equal enthusiasm the parts for fathers and mothers, and intend to share this book with both my wife and daughter. As someone who believes in high standards, I was relieved to find that that was a good thing to do, and learned some new ways to provide those high standards in more supportive and comfortable ways for my daughter. Casual conversations usually do not keep my attention for long, but this book taught me that these are important to my daughter. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much our relationship improved when I put more effort and attention into these occasions. Perhaps the biggest surprise was to see how much longer my daughter works on her homework than these hard-working, successful women did when they were young. I felt much more relaxed about my daughter's prospects, as a result. On the negative side, I found two important weaknesses in the book. The authors kindly provide a nice summary in the beginning. However, the summary doesn't quite capture the lessons in the book in the same way that the advice and stories in the chapters do. Secondly, a better methodology for this study would have been to equally study women who had unhappy lives with successful careers and women with happy lives and unsuccessful careers to see what is truly different about those who are both happy and successful. Perhaps there will be a second book that will develop that point. In the meantime, I recommend this book to everyone who cares about young women's happiness, including the young women themselves. You are bound to pick up some self-confidence about what you are doing right, and some ideas for how to improve where you may not be.

Interesting and Important

I believe See Jane Win was a important book because through the research that Rimm did, she took away the most significant guidelines for raising successful daughters. The stories were interesting and motivational, for they provided a variety of women in different economic backrounds as well as race. The three main qualities that most women exhibited were that of hardworking, smart, and independent individuals. These powerful attributes seemed to be the recipe for success for those women. I had already believed those qualties would lead you far, but now that I have seen a research project I am all the more convinced. I recommend this book not just for women, but men as well, for anyone can learn from its important message.

This book shows that girls must learn to compete.

Dr. Rimm has completed an exhaustive study of the childhood and adolesence of girls who become successful women. Her study gives valuable insights into how we should raise our daughters. Dr. Rimm shows that successful women liked to compete when they were young. After reading the book I won't hesitate to encourage competitiveness in my daughters, who sometimes back away from competition in the classroom. Every teacher should read this book because bright girls are not always encouraged to be competitive. Dr. Rimm points out that parents should present a united front and tell their daughters that to succeed in the real world they must deal with competition and welcome it. Success in the adult world only happens when women compete successfully with their peers, both men and women. Dr. Rimm's book contains many inspiring case histories about world renown women. These busy, successful women apparently participated in the study with the hope that their story would inspire young girls to work hard and achieve. There is no other book that summarizes the attitudes and behavior of 1000 girls who later become successful women. There is much food for thought in this book and it will initiate many interesting followup studies of girls who rise to prominence. If you have a daughter, this is a must book.