Debora Spar, Bestselling Author of Wonder Women, to Visit Music Hall

THE MUSIC HALL’S
INNOVATION and LEADERSHIP and
WRITERS IN THE LOFT series present 

DEBORA L. SPAR

and her national bestseller
about the current state of feminism

WONDER WOMEN:
Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection 

Thursday, February 20, 7pm 

“You know that girl who “has it all”—perfect job, relationship, body? No, you don’t, because she doesn’t exist, argues Barnard College president Debora L. Spar in her explosive new book Wonder Women. Her radical message to you: Stop trying to be so good at everything.” — Glamour  

Ticket package includes book, bar beverage, 
and author meet-and-greet/signing 

Community Partner for this event
NEW HAMPSHIRE WOMEN’S INITIATIVE 


The Music Hall’s Innovation and Leadership and Writers in the Loft series welcomes author, Barnard College President, and former Harvard Business School Professor Debora L. Spar on Thursday, February 20, 2014. Spar will discuss her national bestseller WONDER WOMEN: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection, in which she addresses the evolution of feminism and the towering expectations placed on women today.

The 7pm event includes an author presentation and moderated Q+A, plus book signing and meet-and-greet. It will be held at the Music Hall Loft at 131 Congress Street, in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  The Music Hall’s Community Partner for the event is the New Hampshire Women’s Initiative.

Hailed by such luminaries as Sheryl Sandberg, Tina Brown, and Erica Jong, WONDER WOMEN looks at why, 50 years after the Equal Pay Act, women are still living in a man’s world. Armed with reams of new research, Dr. Spar examines how women’s lives have—and have not—changed over the past half century, as women have struggled for power and instead gotten stuck in an endless quest for perfection. The challenges confronting women are more complex than ever, and they are challenges that come inherently and inevitably from being female. Spar is acutely aware that it’s time to change course.

In her wise, often funny, always human, and smartly conceived book, Spar asks: How far have women really come? And what will it take to get true equality for good? 

“We’re honored to welcome Dr. Spar with her astounding and thought-provoking work.  She has numerous connections with our Seacoast community, and we’re delighted that we’ve been able to find her new friends and supporters at the New Hampshire Women’s Initiative,” said Patricia Lynch, Executive Director of The Music Hall.  “We welcome the NHWI as a Community Partner for this event and look forward to more collaboration.”

Kathleen Soldati, PR Specialist for The Music Hall added, “The New Hampshire Women’s Initiative joined The Music Hall as a Community Partner on our Film Matters event Miss Representation in November 2012; they decided to expand their support to other Music Hall programs. The two nonprofits share values: diversity, the promise of a society with gender equality; interest in gathering with your gender tribe – for affirmation and mentoring; and using arts to talk about serious topics.”

Mary Jo Brown, head of the New Hampshire Women’s Initiative, talked about the importance of this partnership, “We are thrilled to be working with an organization that shares our values. There is so much rich programming for NHWI members to take advantage of. This is a win-win for both nonprofits.” 

ABOUT THE BOOK
Debora L. Spar never thought of herself as a feminist. Raised after the tumult of the 1960s, she presumed the gender war was over. As one of the youngest female professors to be tenured at Harvard Business School and a mother of three, she swore to young women that they could have it all. “We thought we could just glide into the new era of equality, with babies, board seats, and husbands in tow,” she writes. “We were wrong.”

Now she is the president of Barnard College, arguably the most important all-women’s college in the United States. And in WONDER WOMEN: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection—a fresh, wise, original book— she asks why, a half century after the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, do women still feel stuck.

Both deeply personal and statistically rich, WONDER WOMEN is Spar’s story and the story of our culture. It is cultural history at its best, and a road map for the future. Added Lynch, “Don’t miss hearing from Dr. Spar about the immense challenges still confronting young women in today’s world – a critical issue for all of us in 21st-century America.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DEBORA L. SPAR is the president of Barnard College, a women’s liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University. She received her doctorate in government from Harvard University and was the Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Spar is the author of numerous books, including Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Invention, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet and The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception.

TICKETS
The ticket package for the Innovation and Leadershipwith Debora L. Spar presented with Writers in the Loft on Thursday, February 20, at 7pm is $41 ($38 for members). In addition to a reserved seat, the package includes a copy of  WONDER WOMEN ($27, hardcover), a bar beverage, and book signing meet-and-greet. Packages can be purchased through The Music Hall Box Office, located at 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth, over the phone at 603-436-2400 or online at www.themusichall.org.   

WRITERS IN THE LOFT SERIES SPONSOR:  Citizens Bank 
MUSIC HALL SEASON SPONSOR: River House Restaurant and Carey & Giampa Realtors 
COMMUNITY PARTNER: New Hampshire Women’s Initiative 

About Innovation and Leadership Forums
In this Age of Participation, The Music Hall expands on the lively and informative conversations around issues that are part of its celebrated Film Matters with a new programming series, Innovation and Leadership. The new program sprang from the creation of Digital Portsmouth, the popular Music Hall gathering that brings together the best and the brightest of the Seacoast’s e-coast on a quarterly basis with presentations on the art of all things digital combined with social networking.  Other events feature local and regional leaders talking about sustainability, innovation, mindfulness, and leadership in the casual setting of the Music Hall Loft. Larger events with national and international thought-leaders and authors are hosted in the Historic Theater. The Music Hall is committed to community building and personal flourishing and the Innovation and Leadership series is part of that commitment.

About Writers in the Loft
Akin to The Music Hall’s anchor author series, Writers on a New England Stage, Writers in the Loft features well-known authors but in a smaller, more intimate space. The series brings audiences today’s top authors, the best of fiction and nonfiction. The evening package includes a reserved seat and bar beverage, author presentation and Q+A, a copy of the book, and a meet-and-greet book signing with the featured writer.

About The Music Hall’s Community Partner Program

Beyond its on-stage and on-screen offerings, The Music Hall oversees a broad Community Engagement Program that benefits the Seacoast: mentoring local nonprofits, providing $20,000 in discounted rental rates and ticket donations to annual fundraisers for 150 nonprofits, free tickets to local students for Writers on a New England Stage events and affordable admission for home schoolers and students of 80 area schools for the School Days Series; offering learning opportunities by connecting partners with visiting nationally acclaimed authors and artists; and collaborating with various nonprofits on the popular Film Matters series which provides a community forum for discussing global issues presented in high quality documentaries.

 About The Music Hall
The Music Hall is a performing arts center featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus - one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner, recently named "best performing arts venue" by Yankee Magazine and the recipient of the NH AIA award for design excellence. Acclaimed signature series bring top authors and artists to both stages, while HD broadcasts and independent film fill both screens. A radio show broadcast on NH Public Radio originates here. This dynamic arts center urges patrons to Explore + Learn via master classes, post film panel discussions, and matinees for children. An anchor cultural organization in this historic working seaport, The Music Hall is one of downtown Portsmouth’s biggest employers and largest contributors to the regional economy: The Music Hall and its patrons contribute $7 million annually to the local economy through show and visitor related spending. Innovative in its outlook, the organization is community oriented and committed to making the Seacoast flourish. The Music Hall is 501c3 nonprofit managed by a professional staff with the assistance of a volunteer board.  Though global in the scope of its artists and programs, The Music Hall operates independently with the support of 3,000 members, 300 business supporters and 40 community partners. Welcoming more than 100,000 patrons (including 20,000 children) each year from the tri-state area and beyond, The Music Hall is the region’s center for the performing arts, literature and education…easy to get to, impossible to forget. An American Treasure celebrating 135 years
www.themusichall.org 


PRAISE for WONDER WOMEN  

“Debora L. Spar tackles—and dispels—the myth of perfection with intelligence and humor. Wonder Women is a terrific read.”
—Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of the bestselling Lean In 

“Tactfully navigating heated debates and effectively contextualizing historical trends and contemporary problems, Spar's book will be welcomed by readers who envision a world ‘driven by women's skills and interests and passions as much as by men’s.’”
—Publishers Weekly, pick of the week 

“Spar addresses many issues facing working women . . . A wise, worthy companion to Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In.”
— Kirkus Reviews 

“Debora L. Spar has written the right book at the right time… Wonder Women will make many women feel deeply understood. And many men. It's a warm, humorous, and lusty book, and I think many readers will be grateful for it. I certainly am."
—Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying  

“Spar’s artful juxtaposition of society’s conflicting promises and assertions rings through loud and clear . . . Spar’s acerbic wit would do Dorothy Parker proud . . . Wonder Women is equally valuable as a reference source for college-bound daughters and as a lively read for their mothers to dissect in book clubs.”                              
—Colleen Mondor, Booklist 

“Wonder Women is the book I'd give my daughter as a guide to navigating the challenges of being a woman in twenty-first-century America. Debora L. Spar's is a wise, calm, eloquent voice; she offers essential caution against the idea that anybody can live a life without trade-offs and imperfections, but she does this without ever losing hold of the righteous passion of the feminist movement."
—Nicholas Lemann, author of Redemption