Princessa - Softcover

There's a sidelong sensibility at work in this post-feminist analog to the Renaissance's great work of strategy. Harriet Rubin urges women to triumph by turning their enemies into allies and their fear into power; by enlarging their sphere rather than defending it; and by learning to best instead of win.

But there's a delicate wryness to the art of balancing tensions to one's advantage. One of the most telling examples is that of Sun Tzu, who bet the emperor he could turn the twelve royal concubines into fierce warriors, but was bested by the concubines, who simply giggled when he barked orders at them. Modern women may find interpreting this a challenge, but an entertaining one.

Yes!

Women who triumph don't follow the rules; they flaunt them.

Harriet Rubin has studied the great female heroes in the wars of intimacy andpublic life, and distilled their behavior into a plan of action. Whetherconfronting lovers, mothers, bosses, or competitors, The Princessa is aguide for the woman who feels she deserves far more than she has gotten throughcompromise. While women have been socialized to avoid conflict, to bepeacemakers, caretakers, and nurturers, Rubin shows how those veryskills--sensitivity, emotional depth, and selflessness--can be codified into anew strategy of power. The Princessa imparts inspiration and wisdomfrom history's great divas, poets, saints, sinners, and artists, as well asfrom leaders of the most important social movements in our time--women who,with the Furies inside them, in a spirit of justice and outrageousness,established their own rules of power.

Just as Machiavelli showed the prince how to use conflict in order to establishcontrol, Rubin shows why women must act more like women. "Think of mothersrisking everything to defend their young," writes Rubin. "Think of womenovercoming all odds for love." She shows how women, playing by men's rules,have only reinforced their own weakness. So long as the gender wars are wagedon male turf, women will always be fighting a losing battle. It's time to win.Whatever your battlefield, The Princessa will incite you to act like awoman, fight like a woman, and live, at last, by your own rules.

Harriet Rubin has worked in publishing for twenty years. In 1989 she foundedCurrency, where she has published the works of leading executives, economists,management gurus, and CEOs. She has written for the New York Times, theWall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and women's magazines.She lives in New York City.

Copyright © 1997 by Harriet Rubin.