Surviving a survival guide

DEVI, DIVA OR SHE-DEVIL

Sudha Menon 

Penguin Random House

165 pages; Rs 499

There are two types of books on career and success. The first, written mostly by men, defines success as the acquisition of wealth and power. The second, mostly by women, insists that women don’t need to follow suit.  Devi, Diva or She-Devil by Sudha Menon falls in the second category. At first sight, the book is a chronicle of the obvious — from the choice of women it features to the topics covered to the “top tips”  it offers to make their world go round (one example: My career is not my entire life: Chapter 13: have you heard anybody, male or female, ever say on her/his deathbed: “I wish I could spent more time in my office”?). 

But because the book has been written by another woman journalist, who also happens to be the author of three best-selling non-fiction books, I decide to give it a serious read and keep an open mind.

The best thing about the book is that the author is obviously a very competent writer. So while the people featured or their problems discussed are scarcely new, Devi, Diva... ends up being a readable narrative about women who have made a difference in their chosen career paths through, yes, you got it, sheer hard work and commitment (if I were into cliches I would have said “these women have had to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to prove the same level of competence” here). And being a journalist, she has been able to bring out certain aspects of the women she has featured that are interesting and perhaps unknown.

Consider this story about Manisha Girotra, who has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Moelis & Company since mid-2012. When she joined banking in the early 1990s, she was often called upon to be the office’s pizza girl when the (male) bosses got together for a meeting. In one of her first assignments at a high-profile London bank, Ms Girotra had two briefs: One, bring coffee for the managing director every single day and, two, do the work that she had been recruited to do. “Despite everything I had achieved,” she is quoted as saying, “I was still treated as a pretty young thing who was passing time in a bank, building up a resume for a suitable marriage.”

There’s another interesting story from Devita Saraf, founder, CEO and design head of Vu Televisions. She is also part of the family that promoted Zenith Computers and Zenith Infotech Limited. When she started out as a 20-something selling high-tech products, it was not her multinational competitors that gave her sleepless nights; it was the reaction of her dealers, who were always asking her why they should push her products: What if a consumer needs a spare and she has shut shop in the meanwhile because she has married and moved on?

Though scarcely earthshaking, two things that work for Devi, Diva... are that (a) there are few books that speak for Indian women; and (b)  in a kind of mild-mannered way the book manges to bring out a number of assumptions, behaviours and attitudes held by women themselves that hinder their career progress. 

Any discussion on books for career women is incomplete without referring to Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 bestseller Lean In. Here’s the difference: Lean In was more in the genre of a battle hymn for career women and has gone on become a massive cultural phenomenon. Ms Sandberg’s message about the self-sabotage by women was perhaps the most powerful. In a much-referred example, she had said that if men feel they meet, say, six out of the 10 criteria required for a job they go for it, whereas women in a similar situation will be concerned they’re not ready for it.

Devi, Diva...holds no big moral lessons. It is more anecdotal and less preachy. But does a career women who is grappling with these hurdle everyday really need the book? Well, it could serve as a good circuit breaker and safe space for young women starting out to reflect on the possible challenges ahead and plan strategies to manage them. Does her male counterpart need it? They might: The difficulties many of these women faced — simply because they weren’t men — puts a perspective on how unconscious gender biases hold back women even to this day.

Best piece of advice: “Every time somebody puts you down, work doubly hard... Develop a thick skin and wait it out till they finally realise that you mean business.” That was Ms Girota’s father to her but, then, it applies to men too.