Synopses & Reviews
Edited by Nina Tassler, the chairman of CBS Entertainment, a collection of original essays from notable, accomplished women in politics, academia, athletics, the arts, and business offering advice for raising a new generation of empowered girls.
Young women are bombarded these days with advice from every direction telling them to lean in, marry smart, thrive, or not even to try to have it all. Where do they begin? To whom should they listen?
Nina Tassler is, by any standard, a trailblazer. She holds one of the highest positions at CBS Corp., one of the worlds most prominent media companies; she serves on the boards of prominent institutions; and shes a devoted wife and mother. Its hard to imagine a better role model for a young woman. But while attending a volleyball tournament with her daughter, Nina realized that the absence of sports from her own girlhood meant that she didnt always know how to talk to her daughter about what it means to be a female athlete, or about how women could succeed in the often male-dominated field of sports. Nina realized that her perspective on what feminism means—on what being a woman means—is singular and informed by her own journey and that perhaps other mothers may have their own limitations, subjects outside their purview.
In What I Told My Daughter, a kaleidoscope of successful women from all walks of life—from celebrities to business executives, academics to law enforcement to philanthropic and humanitarian leaders including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Madeleine Albright, Geena Davis, Brooke Shields, Norah ODonnell, First Lady Laura Bush, Pat Benatar, Gloria Estefan, Christine Baranski, Sheila Bair, Peggy Orenstein, and Gloria Allred—share anecdotes about the stories theyve told their own daughters to instill in them the belief that they are capable of doing whatever they set their minds to, and that even as they struggle to find their own way, they are far from alone.
Synopsis
In What I Told My Daughter, entertainment executive Nina Tassler has brought together a powerful, diverse group of women from Madeleine Albright to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from Dr. Susan Love to Whoopi Goldberg to reflect on the best advice and counsel they have given their daughters either by example, throughout their lives, or in character-building, teachable moments between parent and child.
A college president teaches her daughter, by example, the importance of being a leader who connects with everyone from the ground up, literally in an organization. A popular entertainer and former child star urges her daughter to walk in her own truth, to not break glass ceilings if she yearns to nurture a family as a stay-at-home mother or to abandon a career if that s her calling. One of the country s only female police chiefs teaches her daughter the meaning of courage, how to respond to danger but more importantly how not to let fear stop her from experiencing all that life has to offer. A bestselling writer who has deliberated for years on empowering girls, wonders if we re unintentionally leading them to believe they can never make mistakes, when resiliency is more important than perfection.
Contributors include Geena Davis, Cecile Richards, Dolores Huerta, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Peggy Orenstein, Debora Black, Ayelet Waldman, Pat Benatar, Whoopi Goldberg, Dr. Susan Love, Nancy Pelosi, Alexandra Pelosi, Marie Osmond, Dr. Juliet Garcia, Jehan Sadat, Ph.D, Joanna Kerns, Madeleine Albright, Gloria Estefan, Nannerl O. Keohane, Jennifer Dulski, Dr. Marcia McNutt, Pamela Fryman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Brooke Shields, Laura Bush, Mona Sinha, Gloria Allred, Joy Marcus, Judy Vredenburgh, Sharon Osbourne, Beverly Johnson, Michelle King, Dr. Karen Antman, MD, Dr. Amy Antman Gelfand, MD, Mary Steenburgen, Kimberley Hatchett, Cheryl Saban, C. Noel Bairey Merz, Alex Guarneschelli, Dana Walden, Mia Hamm, Margaret Abe-Koga, Roma Downey, Chirlane McCray, Blythe Danner, Sheila Bair, Ruth W. Messinger, Norah O Donnell, Donna de Varona, Nancy Josephson, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Jeanne Newman, and Christine Baranski.
In a time when childhood seems at once more fraught and more precious than ever, What I Told My Daughter is a book no one concerned with connecting with a young girl can afford to miss."
About the Author
Nina Tassler is the chairman of CBS Entertainment and has nurtured some of the most popular shows in television, including The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, ER, and the critically acclaimed The Good Wife. She also helped shepherd the global phenomena CSI and NCIS to the screen. Tassler serves on the board for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and is a member of the Board of Trustees for Boston University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.