Because academics tend to be an individualistic lot, accounts such as this one about how to succeed in what we do are few and far between. Only seldom does an author such as McKeachie write on tips for teaching or Boyce on how to enjoy a successful academic career.

Yet much of constructing a career in university is outside the confines of intelligence and teaching ability. It is this third dimension, the social forces which shape successful academics, that the editors of this book attempt to uncover, and in a different way. Instead of advising us, they asked nine women to describe their careers, to tell their stories. With the stories in front of them the editors look for threads to distinguish patterns in those who succeed as women in business schools.

The nine women have been chosen from three levels of experience, what the editors call early-career, mid-career and leaders in their field. After each section there is a summary of what we can learn from these three accounts. For instance, they stress themes of personal mastery, support systems and the 'female dilemma' in the early career women. After summarizing the stories of mid-career women they add the theme of 'serendipity'; some good things happen just by chance, and this theme looms larger with the later-career women. Over all they marshall a 'how-to-succeed' lesson through the stories of these women who have done so.

What comes through clearly in the accounts that these women give is that they are impressive people. All seem blazingly intelligent, all have a real drive not only to succeed but to do so on their own terms, to master not only the narrow tasks needed to hold their position but any and every intellectual challenge that can be offered to them. In addition, they have clearly worked very hard at whatever needed to be done, and have struggled with varying degrees of success to manage both the demands of an academic career and the commitment of marriage and family. In the end it's a little bit exhausting to read their stories.

Something that is not in the book, that limits the perspective that one takes away from it, is a background or context. These are all women in a time and place where women are unusual. How do their careers compare to those of the men around them? There's no evidence that their gender had more than a passing influence on their success, but no way to know. Perhaps this is just a book on how to succeed in Business Schools. Similarly, how do their decisions and commitments compare to those of the women around them who didn't succeed? While we have been offered a picture, we are lacking the frame.

One theme that the editors derive from these stories is a very interesting one, that the "path to success" of these women was far from the linear one that is regarded as standard. Only one of the nine went through the progression from undergraduate to graduate training, straight into an academic position, attaining tenure and advancement on schedule. Several started later in life, several others went from business experience in and out of academia. This is probably a common theme for women faculty in many areas, and with the oversupply of people for academic positions it may be a common theme for many more of us in the future. Thus their experiences offer an important lesson that, in the words of one, "a rationally planned career...is part of a heroic male myth that is rarely realized by anyone." In our modern downsizing, exploitative and stressful university workplace, perhaps their accounts of balance of priorities, opportunism and flexibility offer all of us lessons on how to succeed in this career.

Jennifer Mather is with the Department of Psychology at the University of Lethbridge and is a member of CAUT's Status of Women Committee.

Professor Alan Andrews (Dalhousie) is the Bookshelf page editor; facsimile: (613) 820-2417; e-mail: andrews@is.dal.ca.