A NEW book aims to help women succeed at all stages of their working lives.

Diana Parkes drew on hundreds of hours of interviews and years of research to write Understand Dare Thrive: How To Have Your Best Career From Today.

She said the aim for women to have the best experience of work, wherever they were in their careers.

“It’s for women at any stage of their working life. And not just for women who want to power their careers forward,” she said.

“It’s not putting pressure on women to say you have to reach the top to have a successful working life. They could be just starting out, thinking of a family, getting a family. It’s recognising that what matters to women differs at different stages, as it does for men. My intention is to recognise and enable people to get the most out of those stages.”

The author spent 20 years in senior positions for global organisations such as Mars, Coca-Cola, Carlsberg and Glendinning Management Consultants.

She embarked on a research programme and psychology degree after her second experience of missing out on a board role to a man with no experience.

The Bournemouth-based author founded Women’s Sat Nav to Success to offer coaching, training and consultancy aimed at changing career outcomes for women.

The book uses insights gleaned from around 900 hours of interviews with 45 women. “I had a matrix of all the sectors I wanted to interview somebody from, so that I was as comprehensive as possible in terms of work cultures that this covers,” said Ms Parkes.

The book seeks to pick apart gender stereotypes and challenge myths about the difference between men’s careers and women’s. It offers practical guidance to help women develop the resilience to succeed.

“It’s also exploring what’s going on that subtly but persistently undermines our understanding and our potential – not just what we could be good at, but where we can really fit,” she said.

“The point of helping people understand why this is happening is to enable them to accept the situation and equip them with the means to negotiate that situation better – and also to help them understand why they feel less capable.”

Laurie-ann Sutherland, former Institution of Engineering and Technology Young Female Engineer of the Year, has said of the book: “I wish I could give a copy to my younger self when I was starting my apprenticeship. It answers so many questions, clarifies so many situations and gives so much strength.”

She added: “This book is a paradigm shift. It provides fantastic insights, enabling techniques and anecdotes from an incredible and inspirational cross section of women.”

  • The book is published by Unbound Publishing and can be bought direct at tinyurl.com/udt10, and readers can get a 10 per cent discount by using the code MADISC