The journey to becoming a successful businesswoman is often fraught with obstacles — pitfalls, setbacks, opposition, work-life struggles, and plain old burnout. When presented with “Hype Women: Breaking Free from Mean Girls, Patriarchy and Systems Silencing You,” by author and speaker Erin Gallagher, right before Women’s Small Business Month, I thought to myself, “Jackpot! An excellently timed, boundary-breaking battlecry for worldly women like myself!”
The author begins her journey to notoriety, if you will, by confiding that she shared mom blog-type material that went viral on LinkedIn around six years ago. Apparently, her content touched many hearts, significantly increasing her visibility and helping to spark a “Hype Woman” movement that, to this day, encourages women to support other women’s success.
Gallagher’s Hype Women movement, with fans like Kamala Harris, was galvanized after she shared a photo and motivating caption on LinkedIn in 2023, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis celebrating Michelle Yeoh for winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in the film “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Her post was so poignant that Jamie Lee Curtis herself reached out and pledged her support.
Despite all this hype, the book’s message, for me, fell flat.
Instead of using her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to encourage and uplift millions of women, to teach women to stand in their confidence and to muster and administer the support they so desperately need, the author seemed to squander most of the book in a blog-like haze, not-so-subtly raging at men, other women, institutions, and herself.
I spent the entire book anticipating her catharsis — the place where she finally finds peace and gives up trying to defend her place on this planet — but it never arrives.
Instead of offering practical strategies to bridge the chasms that create discord and competition between women and build positive, mutually beneficial relationships, she merely shares strategies she used (like creating and maintaining boundaries and committing to self-care) to keep herself moving forward.
I’m not saying these strategies are ineffective, but I find them remedial at best. Neither this experience nor these strategies are novel, and they do not address the journey of a successful woman over time.
* ‘Between the Lines’ is a new monthly book review column from freelance reporter Stephanie Bernaba. For the full story, pick up a copy of this week's Independent on newsstands now or purchase a subscription to our E-Edition by clicking here.