Power Play is an honest guide for women who aspire to leadership in the workplace and in the world, from the trailblazing Julia Banks.
Julia Banks shocked Australia when in 2018 she announced she would stand as an independent MP, resigning from the Coalition Government’s Liberal Party, having experienced a toxic workplace culture in the country’s centre of power. Julia doesn't just know what power looks like in a political sense; she made it to the top of her game in the legal and corporate sectors before running for parliament. And at every level, she had to navigate through the barriers and bias that can block, delay or deter women from attaining leadership roles.
This incredibly honest book reveals the unvarnished realities of what the path to leadership looks like, and shows why it's so important to have women in decision-making positions. Julia provides practical takeaways to overcoming and dismantling the gender politics that permeate any field: the unequal opportunities, sexism and workplace misconduct, the pressures around looks, age and family responsibilities, the difficulties in speaking out, and the systems that allow double standards to continue.
For anyone who is aspiring to a leadership role, Power Play will help you to navigate there. And for anyone who believes that women's voices need to be heard equally, it will inspire you to fight until that is our reality.
Power Play, Julia Banks
Read for a f2f bookclub gathering (which somewhat "ironically" was severely hampered by the constant need of a few of the male members to talk about other things over the top of those of us trying to discuss the book....), this was worth the time taken.
It's been a book that has been on my radar for quite a while, wanting to get some perspective of why, at this point in history, a successful woman would be attracted to running for the Liberal Party in the first place - which question wasn't really answered. It was somewhat startling to sense a certain level of "surprise" in Banks that the Liberals would behave so predictably boorishly once leadership was handed to the decidedly non-Liberal right wing Conservative religious wing of the party.
The first third of the book was, for this reader, a bit of a slog for reason's I've yet to fully work out, but the later sections were more engaging, and considerably more enlightening. Again, I've yet to work out exactly why.