The Princessa

Women have always been spies.

That’s a quote from Harriet Rubin’s bestseller The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women.

This book argues that women should settle for nothing less than greatness.

It outlines the strategy women should adopt in order to achieve successful relationships with bosses, clients, lovers and parents. The book also discusses how to become powerful without becoming a man.

Today’s women, struggling to succeed in a man’s world, must learn a crucial lesson of their own: men and women are not equal and that is a woman’s greatest strength.

This provocative work urges women to claim what they want and deserve, offering a bold battle plan that celebrates a woman’s unique gifts: passion and intuition, sensitivity and cunning.

It draws from history’s legendary female divas and poets, saints and sinners, artists and activists who, armed with a desire for justice and a spirit of outrageousness, achieved their impossible dreams. Their lasting legacy is codified in “The Princessa: ” act like a woman, fight like a woman, and life will be yours to command.

Rubin reflects on the different approaches women use in taking control of their lives, and in winning battles: in the workplace; in relationships; in family domains.

She uses the Machiavellian prince as a story on which to reflect and learn. Whereas Machiavelli taught the power of oppression, Rubin offers insights about building networks of support, counting on others to help, and understanding the power that is within.

Analysing her own and others’ experiences has taught her to be firm, but flexible; to pause and reflect; to realise that nothing can hurt you unless you give it power to hurt you.

Rubin states

Enlarge your life, your circle, your mind. Boundaries do more than keep others out; they lock you in.

The Princessa is aimed at every woman who feels that she wants and deserves more than she has gained through traditional means of compromise, co-operation, negotiation and nurturing.