The benefits of gender-specific business books may not be apparent on the surface, but niching is an intelligent play when trying to attract a specific audience. Women, as with all categories of people types based on gender, nationality, religious beliefs, etc., have a specific perspective on business based on their unique experiences, whether internal or external.
While many of the messages shared in business books written by female authors can be applied to anyone, the visceral reaction that buyers have when they see a female author’s name or her picture on the cover can’t be denied.
In this article, we’ll highlight popular business books by women, their categories, and what makes their message worth reading.
Admittedly, when it comes to business books, those written by men far outweigh those written by women. Fortunately, this makes these female writers stand out more.
Below, I share some of the top leadership books for women (and great reads for men, too) I’ve found written by women.
1. The Business Case for AI:
A Leader’s Guide to AI Strategies, Best Practices & Real-World Applications by Kavita Ganesan
Description: In this practical guide for business leaders, Kavita Ganesan takes the mystery out of implementing AI, showing you how to launch AI initiatives that get results. With real-world AI examples to spark your own ideas, you’ll learn how to identify high-impact AI opportunities, prepare for AI transitions, and measure your AI performance.
Categories: Web Analytics, Computer Literacy, Information Technology
Why read it? AI has made its mark and created a significant shift in how business is done. This guide is for anyone who wants to know what this means practically and the choices available for using AI in their business.
2. One Box at a Time:
How to Build and Grow a Thriving Subscription Box Business by Sarah Williams
Description: Sarah Williams, subscription box coach and host of the Launch Your Box podcast, takes you step-by-step through the process to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. She shares the extensive knowledge and experience she gained as she built her own successful, seven-figure subscription box business from the ground up.
Categories: Starting a Business, Women & Business, Entrepreneurship
Why read it? Yes, subscription boxes are still a thing and just as popular as ever. If you have a physical product subscription idea but don’t know where to start, this book offers a process for building your own subscription box business from start to finish.
3. Everyday Business Storytelling:
Create, Simplify, and Adapt A Visual Narrative for Any Audience 1st Edition, Kindle Edition by Janine Kurnoff and Lee Lazarus
Description: In Everyday Business Storytelling: Create, Simplify, and Adapt A Visual Narrative for Any Audience, visual communication and storytelling experts Janine Kurnoff and Lee Lazarus leverage decades of experience helping executives at the world’s top brands—including Colgage-Palmolive, Nestlé, T-Mobile, Medtronic and Meta—bring clarity and meaning to their business communications. Whether you’re building a presentation, crafting a high-stakes email, or need to influence the conversation in your next meeting with an executive, or have to communicate with data, Everyday Business Storytelling offers an insightful exploration of how to develop compelling business narratives that meet diverse audience needs
Categories: Business Leadership Training, Running Meetings & Presentations, and Leadership Training
Why read it? How you present your ideas to others can be a make-or-break moment in business. People are visual creatures, and most love a good story. This Book will show you how to combine the two to create impactful presentations that move your audience to take action.
4. Mind Your Business:
A Workbook to Grow Your Creative Passion Into a Full-time Gig by Llana Griffo
Description: Mind Your Business is the ONLY book that teaches you everything you need to know about how to build a successful business from scratch. From developing your brand to designing products to identifying your legal and tax needs, this comprehensive guide will take you through every step of the process and help you create a unique and customized roadmap for your business. Mind Your Business is for aspiring entrepreneurs who are driven, ambitious, creative, and determined to build a business and life they love.
Categories: Home-Based Businesses, Women & Business, Entrepreneurship
Why read it? This interactive book includes worksheets and planning tools to help you engage while you learn the steps to building a successful business.
5. Run It Like a Business:
Strategies for Arts Organizations to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money–Without Losing the Art by Aubrey Bergauer
Description: The for-profit world knows how to achieve success across customer engagement, user experience, company culture, the subscription economy, technology and media, new revenue streams, and brand relevance. Run It Like a Business provides a powerful, proven framework to help all arts organizations revitalize their economic engines and ultimately serve the arts and its patrons.
Categories: Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Performing Arts Industry, Sports & Entertainment Industry
Why read it? This book focuses on art organizations and how to run them efficiently and effectively. If you want to generate more revenue, be more inclusive, and learn how to attract your ideal audience to fill the seats at your events, this book is a great resource.
6. Business Etiquette Made Easy:
The Essential Guide to Professional Success by Myka Meier
Description: Etiquette expert Myka Meier has coached thousands of business professionals and worked with internal human resources and hiring departments of some of the most successful Fortune 100 companies to learn what it takes to be the best in business. It may surprise you to learn that etiquette is what differentiates you from everyone else, and Business Etiquette Made Easy shows you how to put your best professional foot forward.
Categories: Business Etiquette, Business Image & Etiquette, Business Office Skills
Why read it? The rules of etiquette may shift from generation to generation, but having good manners never goes out of fashion, especially in business. This unique book offers tips on proper business etiquette that will set you up for future success.
7. Higher Ground:
How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World by Alison Taylor
Description: In this eye-opening, essential book, NYU Stern ethics professor Alison Taylor argues that amid stakeholder demands and transparency pressures, we can no longer treat ethics as merely a legal and reputational defense mechanism. Leaders at Davos and the Business Roundtable have called for a new corporate responsibility paradigm, but organizations struggle to implement these ideas in an atmosphere of heightened expectations and intense suspicion. Offering vivid stories and examples from years working in anti-corruption and advising companies on ethics, Taylor brings this complex, risky environment alive to provide a blueprint for how leaders can rethink and reshape their practices.
Categories: Sustainable Development Economics, Corporate Governance, Business Ethics
Why read it? Looking over the last two decades, “turbulent times” are an accurate depiction of the economy, business turnover, and job security (or insecurity). This book presents a deep dive into best practices for corporations now and in the future. If you’re looking for a “new way” to do business that holds ethics closely, this book is a solid read.
8. Girl On Fire:
How to Choose Yourself, Burn the Rule Book, and Blaze Your Own Trail in Life and Business by Cara Alwill Leyba
Description: Successful entrepreneurs don’t wait for their “big break” —they create it. They don’t wait to be featured in a magazine, or picked up by a publisher, or given a chance to speak on a stage. They promote themselves on platforms they create, they self-publish their own books, they launch their own podcasts, they create their own events and build their own stages.
Now is the time to show up for ourselves. We all have the ability to design a life and career beyond our wildest imaginations without permission, selection, or validation. Girl on Fire will show you how to do it.
This book is for every woman who has had a vision that others might not understand. It’s for every woman who is sick and tired of playing by the rules. It’s for every woman who has known she was meant for more and has waited far too long for someone to give her the permission she thought she needed.
Categories: Women & Business, Women & Business, Business & Investing
Why read it? : This book is a great fit for anyone looking for a self-help book for women and the extra motivation to be the best version of themselves. Cara Alwill Leyba believes in the female-driven movement and walks you through her process of taking ownership of your personal brand.
9. The Bond Book, Third Edition:
Everything Investors Need to Know About Treasuries, Municipals, GNMAs, Corporates, Zeros, Bond Funds, Money Market Funds, and More 3rd Edition by Annette Thau
Description: This is a one-stop resource for both seasoned bond investors looking for the latest information on the fixed-income market and equities investors planning to diversify their holdings. Writing in plain English, Thau presents cutting-edge strategies for making the best bond-investing decisions, while explaining how to assess risks and opportunities. She also includes up-to-date listings of online resources with bond prices and other information.
Categories: Bonds Investing, Mutual Funds Investing, Introduction
Why read it? If you are interested in bond investing, Annette Thau writes in plain, easy-to-understand language that will put even those just starting out in bond investing at ease. This book is for all experience levels and especially useful to those wanting a more in-depth understanding of bond investing
10. Business Boutique:
A Woman’s Guide for Making Money Doing What She Loves Kindle Edition by Christy Wright
Description: There is a movement of women stepping into their God-given gifts to make money doing what they love. If you’re ready to join them, this is your handbook that will take the ideas in your head and the dream in your heart and turn them into action.
*Help you create a step-by-step, customized plan to start and grow your business.
*Show you how to manage your time so you can have a business- and life- that you love.
*Explain overwhelming business stuff like pricing, taxes, and budgeting in simple terms.
*Teach you how to use marketing to reach the right people in the right way.
Categories: Home-Based Businesses eBooks, Women & Business, Home-Based Businesses
Why read it? Looking for a feel-good book that motivates you to make the best use of your gifts and talents? This is the book for you. It’s for anyone who wants a solid foundation for building a home-based business on their terms.
Takeaways
Although every book written by a female author doesn’t cater to women only, reading a book by someone who has a similar life perspective and/or experience can add credibility to a book and be more impactful. If you are a female author with aspirations to write the next business book best seller, take a closer look at the business books by women on our list and use them as a blueprint of what can work.
Ready to write your business book and share your expertise with those eager to hear our story? Start by sharing your idea with one of our publishing experts. They can help you plan the next steps to launching your best seller.
