It’s time for women to take charge, says successful businesswoman Vicki Donlan. In a spirited call to action, she covers the challenges, opportunities, prospects, and emerging roles for female leaders in a wide spectrum of fields including business, politics, education, healthcare, law, and nonprofits. Best, she buttresses her points through original interviews with women leaders in many fields-including Teresa Heinz Kerry, Chairman, Heinz Family Philanthropies; Gail Deegan, Board Member, TJX Companies and EMC; and Ann Caldwell, Chair, Commission on Women in Higher Education, American Council on Education. This book, both guide and manifesto, offers both women and men a blueprint for establishing a new model of leadership that can take advantage of the skill, passion, and wisdom of women everywhere.

Familiar statistics demonstrate the continued inequality in pay between women and men, the dearth of women on the boards and in the executive suites of major corporations, and the challenges that women face in breaking down barriers in politics, science, law, healthcare, and other male-dominated professions. As Donlan reminds us, women have always had to fight to gain access to basic privileges, such as education and the right to vote. And yet, dig deeper, and the numbers are beginning to tell a different story. For example, women currently start two out of every three new businesses. Once started, women-owned businesses are more likely to be in operation at the crucial make-or-break five-year mark and less likely to be in debt than those established by men. A recent study finds that the most profitable Fortune 100 companies are those with women on the board, and networks are developing to raise funds for women political candidates, who are beating their male opponents with increasing regularity. In short, women have the numbers, talents, determination, and willingness to lead, and a groundswell that has the potential to result in dramatic change is building. Drawing from interviews with dozens of pioneers in business, politics, education, healthcare, philanthropy, and other fields, Donlan argues that women are poised to shatter the glass ceiling, but only if they start working together to make it happen.

This is a historic time: As this book argues, if women organize more effectively, the emergence of a new model of leadership-one that includes women at the highest reaches of society-is inevitable.