More business books are authored by men than women, but women have powerful voices and stories that should be heard.

Women business leaders have always faced an uphill battle. In recent decades, the gap between men and women entrepreneurs and business leaders has started to close. Still, most business mentors, business book authors, and business coaches are men. While they are talented and have a lot of insights, women’s stories and voices are underrepresented in the business world.

I grew up surrounded by some incredibly successful, motivated, talented, high achieving women business leaders. Without them, there are risks I never would have taken, paths I never would have followed. Women’s stories of success, their thoughts, and their insights are invaluable to other women out there and also to businesses headed by women leadership.

Why Women’s Stories are Important

In order to be successful in business, rise to a leadership position, and meet your own career goals, it’s important to have a mentor or coach. Someone who has been there and who can guide you through it.

We don’t always recognize who our coach or mentor is but it is an important step in the leadership journey.

In the current business environment, most business mentors are men. They author more books, headline more speaking engagements, and provide more consultation services than women. While this isn’t inherently bad, because there are a lot of talented, insightful business men out there, it leaves a gap in the industry.

Women business leaders lack the mentoring from other women who have faced their same trials and overcome their same obstacles.

We all know that what men and women face in business is different.

When more women business leaders step up and share their stories, become the mentors, we can see that gap between men business leaders and women business leaders shrink faster.

So many of the inspiring women business leaders who have done incredible things with their careers and businesses and who have unique insights and ideas are never recognized because their stories aren’t shared and their voices aren’t heard.

They are never recognized for their achievements and as a whole, women business leaders are overshadowed by their male counterparts.

When there aren’t as many women as men standing in the spotlight, the pattern persists from one generation to the next and future women business leaders might not have the resources the need to get to where they want to be.

While I don’t have a specific answer as to why that is (though, I suspect there is a historical basis that could be explored), I do have a remedy to that problem.

Authoring a business book is a fantastic way for women business leaders to share their stories, raise their voices, and be heard.

The Benefits of Women Authored Business Books

All business books provide certain benefits to business leaders, businesses, and companies.

A few of those benefits include:

• Better speaking engagements
• More visibility in your market
• Building trust between your audience and your product/service
• New business opportunities
• Diversified revenue streams

Those are universal business book benefits that are available to men and women business leaders who author business books.

However, for women business leaders, the personal and long-lasting benefits go beyond what can be gained from the business side. Don’t get me wrong, that’s important. Writing a business book is designed to benefit your business’s bottom line, your brand, and your message.

For women business book authors, empowering that brand and message with a book takes on a different tone.

Women business leaders have a chance to break out by authoring a book into an underserved market with an underrepresented audience. And that can be a business game changer in terms of visibility, profits, and overall success.

Women business book authors develop the narrative around female entrepreneurship

It’s no secret that the world of business and business leadership has primarily been dominated by men for centuries. There was a time when women weren’t even allowed to work. Times have certainly changed, but it has taken a lot of work, outcry, and visibility to get to where we are today.

Unfortunately, there is still a sizeable gap between women business leaders and men business leaders. Part of that is because of the inherent inequalities built into the system (which is another topic for another day). And part of the reason is because women’s voices aren’t being represented openly.

I know there are a lot of successful women business leaders out there. I’ve worked with several to tell their stories. But it remains a fact that most business books are authored by men.

Why aren’t more women sharing their stories? Why aren’t more women stepping into the spotlight to become business mentors or coaches?

I can’t answer that question.

I do suspect that part of it is a self-perpetuating cycle. Most of business success is framed from the male perspective. Their voices have been in it longer, have shouted louder, and have been on book covers more frequently.

To change the narrative and to chance the cycle, more women business leaders should author books. The more women who step up, the more will follow in their footsteps. And that’s when we will see women’s stories creating long-lasting change.

It can be scary to take that plunge but women business leaders who step out and share their stories not only set themselves apart from other women-led organizations and companies in their market, but they pave the way for others to follow their lead.

Books authored by women encourage them to promote their success

Women are systemically and culturally discouraged from promoting their successes and sharing their achievements.

I see it a lot in my line of work.

Most of my men clients come in ready to go, confident they have a meaningful story, and willing to put themselves out there.

Many of my women clients are a bit more hesitant. They’ll question their tone and approach a lot more, not wanting to come off as too pushy or too aggressive.

There is an art to capturing the right tone when writing a book. But the issue I see is that women are more hesitant to talk about their accomplishments.

Stigmas can be broken, though.

If more women choose to author business books and showcase their achievements, it creates the groundwork to change the way we think about our successes. It encourages other women to be comfortable with their successes, too.

Not only does this build personal confidence but when your target audience sees the confidence you have in yourself, it will inspire trust and confidence in your brand and message. Which, ultimately, benefits your business.

Women business leaders who share their stories teach others to value women’s expertise and insights

Becoming a thought leader is a trending goal for many business leaders. They want to set themselves apart from their competitors by showing that their thoughts, insights, and methods are unique and different from others in the same industry.

The same can be said for women business leaders.

Authoring a book is a one-way ticket to thought leadership when it is leveraged correctly.

However, women thought leaders serve a secondary purpose that isn’t always considered.

Historically speaking, women’s stories and accounts haven’t always been trusted or believed. I wrote a piece covering that with a well-known historical event, which you can read here.

That is changing but in order to make it change, more women need to share their stories. Women business leaders are in an exceptional position to promote this change. They are respected as professionals. They have their thoughts, insights, and experiences which have gotten them to their current level of success. They already have networks of people who trust them and listen to them.

So, expanding that network to a wider audience through a book adds a new level of authority to women’s voices and stories. Authority brings trust and value. Society needs to be taught to respect and value the knowledge and insights from women.

Women thought leaders aren’t as prominent or numerous as men thought leaders and they stand to make a larger impact on the business world and their respective markets. Sometimes, you need to stand out and do what other people aren’t doing in order to make the biggest mark on your industry.

For women business leaders, that could be authoring a book and making a space for yourself as a thought leader.