Stacey Vanek Smith’s Machiavelli for Women is a sharp, empowering guide that reclaims the infamous strategist’s principles to help women navigate power, ambition, and inequality in the modern workplace.

Blending historical insight with contemporary career advice, Vanek Smith draws from Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince—a manual on power and politics—to offer women practical tools for asserting themselves, negotiating effectively, and advancing their careers without apology. With wit and journalistic clarity, she addresses the double standards, systemic barriers, and internalized doubts that often hold women back, reframing Machiavellian tactics as a means of empowerment rather than manipulation. Through interviews, research, and real-world examples, Machiavelli for Women encourages readers to embrace ambition, own their value, and play the game strategically—on their own terms.