Whitwell Publishing

Inspiring the world, one chapter at a time.

Whitwell Publishing is a family business in every sense of the word, founded by Dr. David Whitwell. The collection then grew with the addition of Giselle Whitwell's books and also features a set of Whitwell History books which tell the story of one of America's oldest families which has played an active civic, cultural and philanthropic role from the pre-revolutionary era through and including modern times.

Extraordinary Women

There is a logical temptation to market books like this to a female audience. But I think that is a big mistake. Yes, there is unquestionably a great benefit, as a woman reader, to be exposed to more women role models, especially ones who succeeded despite the most daunting odds against them. But, I also think the same benefit accrues to men. What human being hasn't at some point had a "bad day in the office" or faced stressful headwinds of one kind or another? You will read about women who achieved extraordinary things in their lifetime despite daily challenges that make many of ours today look tame. Men and women can benefit from drawing on additional perspective when faced with difficult circumstances and choosing how to deal with it.

This book is also a great reminder that human beings come in many flavors and that stereotyping by gender or any other single dimension will get you in trouble in a hurry. This book shares the stories of women who were extraordinary, in one way or another, some of whom were living out roles expected of women and many others who were acting way outside traditionally expected roles and therefore challenged everything about the then social status quo!

My guess is that you'll recognize roughly half the women in this book and that the other half will be new to you!

Lastly, another wonderful benefit of this book, although not the intention of the author when writing it, is that this is a book of short (one or several pages at most) vignettes -- so you can easily read all about one person in just a couple minutes and not have to commit to either reading the whole book to get something out of it or even one chapter. Perfect in a world where we are told the average attention span is two seconds tops.

Whereas many of David Whitwell's books are written with a very specific audience in mind, this book, I dare say, speaks to the broadest possible audience (pun intended) in that it is an equally inspiring read for both men and women alike. And if you are a Dad who has daughters (as I am), then this should be required reading!

Extraordinary Women

For a period which ended 2,500 bc ours was a matriarchal world. History does not tell us how well the women did because history [his-story] was written by later men. The men took over about 2,500 bc and how well they have done in organizing and running society is at best debatable. ...

Length: 464 pages

Language: English

Publication Year: 2012