License to Thrive

"Why Women Should Rule the World"

In 1993, Dee Dee Myers made history by becoming the first woman to serve as White House press Secretary under President Bill Clinton.  Fifteen years later, in her  book "Why Women Should Rule the World, "  Myers proposes that the world would be a better place if women held more positions of power. 

To test her premise, she looked at examples of women who had taken the initiative to institute change in their respective fields.  Her book includes Bernadine Healy, MD, the first woman to lead the National Institute of Health.  Prior to her arrival,in the 1980's, a study examining risk factors for heart disease involved numerous clinical trials, none of which included women. A separate study looking at the benefits of aspirin  to prevent heart attacks also had no women.  Upon her arrival, Healy mandated that NIH policy be enforced properly including the inclusion of women in clinical trials.  Under Healy's tenure, the Women's Health Initiative was also launched.  The study followed over 150,000 American women for a period of 15 years to determine causes of disability and death in women over 50 and has been a catalyst to bring women's health issues to the forfront.

Myers also examines the stories of women such as Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University, who helped modify the institution's tenure system to allow women professors achieve more success in their careers and Kathleen Sebelius, former insurance commissioner of Kansas, who made bold moves to protect her constituents and ended up in the Governor's office.