Women's Work

by Anne Tolstoi Wallach

Domina Drexler, the smart, attractive, and ambitious vice-president of a powerful advertising firm, is driven to overcome all obstacles and to become the senior vice-president and a director of the company

Genres: Romance, Fiction

419 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much better than today's chick-lit. Relevant to women who are still struggling in male-dominated workplaces. Also deals with some of the backbiting that occurs between professional women. Yes, some of it was over the top but it was relatable. What I loved was that the woman's success was not predicated upon her losing weight or finding love or having babies. This is a grown up book for grown up women.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this novel by Wallach, who has recently died. The main character's musings on generations was for me the most interesting part. This protagonist, Domina, is probably ten years older than I am, and considers herself to be in a place in time between the older generation, typified by another character called Bella Rosner (“a dressmaker”, Domina writes her off at first), and the younger generation which does not care about arranging flowers for a dinner party, women who do not change their names when they marry. The book seems to reference the 1980 movie Nine to Five in fact, when Domina notes that Hollywood had not yet noticed that secretaries wear jeans to work – all those secretaries wore dresses. An in-between time for women, though while reading Bella's life history between the lines, hardly the first. The book, and a New York Times obituary mentions her concern with women getting maternity leave. Wallach had had to use her vacation leave for that. And in 2018, my daughter in New York was treated the same. Some things just haven't changed!

[Francesco · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Italian cover of "Women's Work" is misleading. I was expecting a novel full of steamy sex, instead that's a novel about the obstacles women face in the workplace. Of course, there's some sex and Domina, our dear heroine, is bitchy enough to make the novel interesting.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely riveting. There is romance, career issues, friendship and more. It is about an ambitious woman who is at once divorced, a mother, career woman, friend, and a romantic. This is truly a work of fiction that stands the test of time.

[Jami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent story, albeit a bit dated since it was written in the 1980s. It’s an interesting look at advertising, and while I’m sure some of the same treatment of women is still occurring, it’s more subtle these days. The story was good, but the writing style knocked it down a star for me. The women were all portrayed as sleeping around, which was irritating after awhile, and her constant description of things as “beautiful” (I.e., her beautiful bed, she turned the beautiful handle on the door, etc) or multiple descriptions of MJs “little hands” grated on me. I also didn’t get the characters (both make and female) referring to a younger employee as “baby” when talking to her; I don’t recall that being a thing in the 80s.

[shapeofaflyingdeer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The setting is “The Eyes Of Laura Mars” (and the motivation and descriptions) but extroversion is different that’s all.

[LadyCalico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pot-boiling soap opera from the era of Dynasty and Dallas. Fast entertaining read if you are into money, power, and sex and women who face life with a maximum of histrionics. Our plucky heroine cries enough tears to fill the Pacific Ocean with salt water, just because men will not take her seriously--go figure.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this; my wife made me read it (in 1983) before she would marry me. It might seem a bit dated now.

[Marta D'Onghia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro sul femminismo che ti fa capire la determinazione, la forza, l'intelligenza di una donna in un mondo di lavoro prevalentemente maschile.

[BLRBrazil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was sufficiently involving to draw me into it and one is not given more than a superficial glimpse of the advertising world, as this is very much a character-based novel. So one doesn't come to the end thinking 'now I know all about advertising', although the glimpses are interesting.
The notorious glass ceiling is very much in evidence and having recently seen an Italian film portraying the life of the wonderful Maria Montessori it is rather depressing to see how little credibility men were giving their womenfolk 100 years later.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Indeed Roe on several occasions, following much needed reflection, goes to apologise to Domina and ends up precipitating another argument, because he never actually gets around to his apology but ends up trying to do his dominant male thing. Consequently, I'm still not sure at the end if it really will be happy ever after. Decide for yourselves and let me know what you think :o)
But it's not just about Roe and Domina. There are 4 other significant female characters and 2 other major male ones, as well as numerous other characters that step in and out of the story and give it more substance, as in real life. We are not told what happens to Lolly, but I assumed she got her comeuppance when the 'switch' became evident - unless it got overshadowed by the greater drama that was unfolding. I look forward to hearing fellow readers' opinions on that score also.

[Kat Richter · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the beginning, I could tell this story was a bit dated, but I am old enough to remember the time and atmosphere described. It was a little difficult for me to get into the story at the beginning, but it did interest me enough to finish it. I found it an enjoyable read, but not something that I couldn't put down.

[Anne Gabrielle Cousineau · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’ai lu ce livre mais la traduction française qui s’intitule: AFFAIRES DE FEMMES. Comme les femmes de ce temps ont dû travailler fort afin d’obtenir des postes de cadres. Même si elles faisaient le travaille mieux qu’un homme, elle n’avait pas le titre!!!! We’ve come a long way, baby and thanks to all those women who have preceded us and fought their way to the top. Thank you to all

[greatgrayprairie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stop and go traffic type strategic life frustrations
The author uses ordinary depression as a character in and of itself whereas modern feminist authors write their female characters as being motivated by their depression instead of being motivated by non depression.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't hate this, but I didn't like it either. The story was about 2 women (so far as I read) that were in the work force. Both were in positions of power, but had hit the mystical "glass ceiling". I am assuming that eventually they will have found some way to get past it, but I really didn't much care either way. I couldn't relate to the characters very well, and I could tell it was going to be full of sex and trash, so I just put it down.