Blog Posts by ForbesWoman

By Kiri Blakeley

Attention eligible bachelors: Sabina Ptacin would like to meet you. She's the owner of two successful companies and is energetic and sociable.

She looks a bit like the actress Kate Winslet, with green eyes and sandy blonde hair. There's only one problem: She spends so much time working, she breaks more dates than she keeps.

Loretta Talbot, a senior project manager at Wyeth, the pharmaceutical giant, wants a relationship too. She has a zest for life and enjoys photography and sailing. But it's not a sure thing that a man will call for a second date once he finds out how much real estate she owns.

Finding one's soul mate is never easy. But for women who are pursuing influential careers the course of true love can be especially tricky. It's not just a matter of trying to find the time to date when you're working around the clock. Unlike their male counterparts, who generally

By Heidi Brown and Scott DeCarlo

There's something very desirable about the corner office ... and the paycheck that comes with it.

In January, President Obama signed the historic Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which aims to guarantee equal compensation for men and women. Yet even in the corner office, it seems, women still don't enjoy the same rewards for their managerial performance as men. This year, America 's top-paid female CEOs earned, on average, $3.9 million. Compare this to the men, who raked in an average of $11.9 million.

Of course, compensation is a complex thing--an art, some might say. It's based on the length of time an executive has been with the company, her ability to return value to shareholders, her relationship with the board and the desire of the directors to keep her from moving on.

Take Carol Meyrowitz. The chief executive of TJX, the company that owns Marshalls and TJ Maxx, earned $11.1 million over the last year. Jeffrey Immelt, the embattled

By Leah Bourne

Got $100 in your pocket and a closet to fill? Here's what to look for as you expand your wardrobe this season.

Fashion lovers don't need to break their budgets to replenish their wardrobes with the trendiest new looks this fall. That's because a long list of prominent designers, from Jimmy Choo's Tamara Mellon to Anna Sui, are launching price-conscious secondary lines, partnering with mass retailers or just lowering their prices to appeal to consumers.

Many designers understand that the magic number for shoppers these days hovers around the $100 mark. If that's within your budget, you can now scoop up some of fall's hottest items, a welcome change from the last few years when retailers were predominantly pushing luxury goods.

100 Under $100: The Classics

100 Under $100: The Menswear Influence

Look first for menswear-inspired looks, such as tailored blazers, Oxford shoes and oversized button-downs--all fashions that can work at the office. The

by Heidi Brown

It's not just for the wealthy, and it's more than a will. There's your medical care, insurance and kids to consider.

As many of us watch our portfolios dwindle and bills add up, it's tempting to put off planning for the future. Experts caution, though, that everyone--no matter their age or family status--needs to sit down and plan their estate.

Start Today

Whether you are wealthy or debt-laden, you should tell loved ones and put into writing how you want your estate to be handled, says Debbie Whitlock, co-owner of Sound Financial Partners, a financial-services practice in Seattle .

She says women often assume that such after-death planning is something only rich people need to do. Perhaps it's the word "estate." That's wrong.

"It doesn't matter how much money is in your bank account" or what age you are, says Whitlock, who works mostly with female clients. "Everyone needs to do estate planning. Without it there's a lot of confusion and chaos."

By Laura Sinberg

These gaffes can cause women to lose their reputations, promotions and, sometimes, their jobs.

When Marny Lifshen, a 40-year-old Texan and mother of two, began her career as a marketing and PR coordinator at a law firm some 20 years ago, she made a big mistake: not negotiating a fair salary. Her error set a precedent that followed her for nearly two decades.

"To some degree that has limited the amount of money I make today," Lifshen admits. "I didn't have the guts [to ask for more money]. I knew I was worth more."

Six Reasons You're Not Advancing At Work

It's called self-sabotage, and in these anxious times in the American workplace, female professionals need to be aware of these all-too-common behaviors. From underestimating your value as a professional or bellyaching about a new assignment at the water-cooler (in full view of your superiors) to not sharing your ideas at meetings (with those same superiors sitting around the table), these gaffes can

By Kiri Blakeley

Both men and women fib, falsify and deceive. Just not about the same things.

Any woman who has been online dating for awhile can tell you the story of meeting a man whose profile, which said he was 6-feet tall, ended up being several inches short of the truth. And most men can tell you about the woman whose reality was about 10 years older than her online photos.

And while the reverse might happen, it's much less likely. That's because most studies conclude that men and women lie with equal regularity, but in general, why, how and what they lie about are very different.

Six Self-Help Books Women Love And (Most) Men Won't Read

"One [female] client is 47, she looks 40, and her profile says 35," says Dr. Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and Metro newspaper advice columnist who says one-third of his clients use online dating sites. "Men tend to lie about their height or how much money they make. In the old days, men might have said they were an investment

By Sara Eckel

Caution may seem like a wise choice in a recession, but the smart risk takers among us just might have an edge. Learn to place your bet--and know when to walk away.

Shortly after last year's economic crisis hit, many experts on Wall Street and in academia speculated about whether the meltdown might have been averted if more women held decision-making positions in the financial sector. The argument, which was reported in Forbes Woman and other publications, went that because women tend to be more cautious and conservative, they might not have taken the disastrous risks that their male counterparts did.

In Pictures: Is It Worth The Risk?

While there is considerable data that suggest women are generally more careful than men, Professor Sylvia Maxfield, an expert in management at Simmons School of Management in Boston, disputes the notion that women are risk-averse.

Maxfield and her colleagues surveyed 650 female managers who were attending Simmons' 2008

By Jenna Goudreau

In this most challenging job market, proven methods that will land you the job are an absolute must.

Despite what some think, landing a job during a recession is not an impossible feat. There are openings out there, and the search for top talent is ongoing. Increased competition may slim your chances, certainly, but it won't stamp them out. You can get an offer, with a few smart strategies and a heavy dose of hard work.

In Pictures: Top 10 Tips To Land That Job

Just ask Kendra Trahan of Winter Garden, Fla. A regional sales director for four years at Bausch & Lomb until the lens company's recent reorganization (it has been shedding jobs globally after moving out of the public sector in 2007), Trahan says she saw the writing on the wall long before she was officially laid off in June. She had already been reading up on 2.0 resume-building and job-hunting tactics.

Trahan also hired a personal marketing service, ITS of Denver, Colo., to develop a job-search