New Female Tribes: Shattering Female Stereotypes and Redefining Women Today, by Rachel Pashley, is a book based on a survey carried out by the author’s firm. It was a substantial survey, revealing the dreams and goals of over 8,000 women from 19 countries.
The outcome of this ambitious survey was a variety of ‘cohorts’, or as Pashley prefers to call them: tribes.
The tribes identified are presented as an alternative to the traditional female stereotypes, countering the received wisdom of what life should look like for women generally and women in particular countries.
Pashley and the research team identified and categorised a broad range of tribes including those who preferred to be seen as home-makers (they do still exist) through to anti-alphas (women struggling to find their place and dealing with emotional or financial insecurity). Interestingly, age is a defining characteristic for many of the tribes, as was a hostile work environment.

There are enlightening examples of bias at work including this anecdote which I found particularly memorable: a company was struggling to make their cake boxes easier to open. The male packaging designers came up with a number of designs, none of which was very good. A female colleague found out that they were having this issue, and showed them how she had been opening cake boxes for years without damaging the contents inside, as she imagined many women did. This is how the incident concludes in the book:

[They] realised I was onto something: the design was duly prototyped and patented. Had I been smarter, I would have quit right then and there, taken my design to the patent office and laughed all the way to the bank. But my respect for duty and compliance and a relative lack of arrogance –perhaps because of my gender –meant that I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking credit for the idea. The point is that neither of those male engineers had ever opened a cake carton as part of their domestic lives and, putting gender stereotypes and household division of labour issues to one side, the bigger problem was that they had never thought to ask someone, most likely a woman, how she opened a cake carton: so, what could have taken ten minutes took two years.
The book is particularly aimed at brands who are designing products for women, but it’s illuminating and sad at the same time. Reading it was the first time my assumptions about ‘female’ products had really been challenged. The book points out that many products are designed for men and adapted for women. Could a product be truly designed through a female lens e.g. finance products aimed at women who live longer but earn less so a different investment model is required.
Depressingly, the survey concludes by reminding us just how far we have to go. More than 40% of women anywhere in the world felt that their gender was holding them back from their career goals. Pashley writes:
[It] was also very clear through the data that women wanted much greater recognition for who they were, beyond society’s limited expectations or outdated ideals, and to see their achievements and significance within the world reflected back to them. In short, they wanted to feel visible and included in the cultural narrative: there is very clear evidence that up to this point they felt that they had been excluded or airbrushed out…
Let me just leave that thought there.


This review will appear on GirlsGuideToPM.com in a few weeks.

A very interesting book about women in the current world, their expectations, and the different roles.
Highly recommended for understanding what's happening in the women's world and what are the new opportunities and the current main issues.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC