Profiles of Female Genius - Hardcover

Landrum, Gene N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0879758929 ISBN 13: 9780879758929

Publisher: Prometheus, 1994

Synopsis

Following the pattern of his acclaimed Profiles of Genius, Gene N. Landrum discusses the elements that give these extraordinary women the edge over their competition. Among the factors Landrum addresses are psychosexual desire, the tendency to take abnormal risks, a visionary perspective, a dream-like but unshakable belief system, an intuitive operating style, and boundless energy.

To define what genetic, imprinted, and conditioned elements contribute to this creative process, Landrum writes about the significance of birth order, personality, risk-taking propensity, educational background, inner drives, mentors, and need to achieve, the willingness to sacrifice, cultural influences, and life crises, in an effort to show what makes these women tick.

Among the success stories profiled are cosmetic executives Mary Kay Ash, Liz Claiborne, Estee Lauder, and Warnaco CEO Linda Wachner; opera singer Maria Callas; actress Jane Fonda; entertainer Madonna; gift catalog founder Lillian Vernon; politicians Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher; activists Ayn Rand and Gloria Steinem; and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

About this title

From Booklist:

Landrum does a masterly job of identifying and analyzing the characteristics of female geniuses by isolating the qualities 13 of them share. His criteria betokening genius include motherhood of an industry or field; dominant influence in an enterprise for at least 10 years; and an achievement of multinational scope since 1960. The 13 that meet these standards (Oprah Winfrey, Liz Claiborne, Maria Callas, Golda Meir, Lillian Vernon, Jane Fonda, Ayn Rand, Madonna, Gloria Steinem, Mary Kay Ash, Estee Lauder, Linda Wachner, Margaret Thatcher) each had a very influential father; an independent, indomitable spirit; high self-assurance, verging on arrogance; competitive drive coupled to a renegade mentality; perfectionist, goal-oriented workaholism; charismatic and persuasive personality; and an intuitive decision-making style. Landrum tracks their educational levels, styles of innovation, and libidos, and--in a controversial bit of theorizing sure to land him on talk shows and generate publicity--he postulates that they owe their success, in part, to unusually high levels of testosterone, a finding he correlates to similar ones about male genius. Whitney Scott

From Library Journal:

In this sequel to his Profiles of Male Genius: Thirteen Creative Men Who Changed The World (Prometheus, 1993), Landrum covers the lives of 13 "visionary" women. Those chosen are (or were) leaders in their industry or field, which they have dominated for over ten years; have international ties; and have achieved their success within the last 40 years. His subjects, who range from Golda Meir, Mary Kay Ash, Ayn Rand, and Gloria Steinem to Margaret Thatcher, Oprah Winfrey, and Madonna, cover the breadth of contemporary life. Examining such life influences as birth order, education/intelligence, life crises, and personality, Landrum includes many unfounded assumptions (there are no textual references and no notes) based on literature from popular biographies. Given his background in the corporate world, he probably should have focused on women entrepreneurs, not politicians and novelists. Despite these objections, the volume is enjoyable to read. Recommended for public and large academic libraries and popular culture collections.
Jenny Presnell, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0879758929
• ISBN 13: 9780879758929
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 437