Pathways to Career Success for Women: A Resource Guide to Colleges, Financial Aid, and Work. Paperback -- Ferguson Publishing, April 2000, $29.95, ISBN: 0894342819. Packed with lots of great information and resources, these two volumes in Ferguson’s Pathways to Career Success series are quite helpful, if perhaps mis-titled. One’s career would seem to derive only peripheral benefits from the resources offered in these hefty books. If we make the natural assumption, however, that most successful careers begin with college, perhaps we can make the leap to the “career” portion of the titles. As suggested by their subtitles, the guides provide abundant information on colleges and college programs geared toward women and minorities, as well as financial aid sources for these under-represented groups. But work? Not exactly. The best career-related resources in the books are excellent sections devoted to little-known (and often unpaid) internships with a minority or woman-oriented slant. The books are also a rich resource for networking because they list dozens of professional organizations for women and minorities, as well as excellent networking groups, such as fraternities and sororities. The books are good sourcebooks for women and minorities who want to start their own businesses. Lists of publications, Web sites, and directories containing additional information also are proffered by the tomes. Each book begins with a section rather dryly titled “Essays on Women’s Topics” and “Essays on Minority Topics.” These essays are somewhat textbook-like in style, but they do offer some helpful definitions and information. Topics include workplace diversity, leveling the playing field, minorities in the arts, mentoring, legal rights and recourse, child-care issues, new career options such as flextime and job-sharing, women-owned businesses, nontraditional career options for women, role models, and networks. You can read a sample essay from the women’s book or from the minority book at the publisher’s Web site. (You can also see a sample from the directory portions of the books through these sites.) Speaking of Web sites, we wonder if these books would work better as Web sites; the type of information they present needs frequent updating, which would be a lot more readily accomplished with a Web site. These are perhaps also not meant as books for the average consumer to go out and buy (at almost $30 per book) but more for libraries, schools, and career centers to have on hand. Nonetheless, they are valuable resources -- even if their hard-core career information is limited.
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