The Right Sisters
The Right Sisters is a mix of compelling narrative and practical how-to that reveals the creative mind at work in a context never before examined so intimately—the journey of the modern women inventor.
When Julia Rhodes created the prototype for her first invention, she knew nothing about manufacturing and marketing. She nevertheless stepped wholeheartedly into the inventor journey. She took risks and made mistakes. She dealt with the complexities of applying for a patent and navigating the
corporate world of business. She made friends and garnered the invaluable support of women. The Right Sisters is about some of the friends she met:
- Fran Rabello is a teacher who grew tired of waiting for someone else to solve a problem when she could easily see a solution.
- Wanda Plimmer, once an actress, describes with dramatic flair how a medical emergency served as her inspiration.
- Wendy Steele, a former banker, subjected her invention to critical evaluation and rigorous trials when preparing to bring it to market.
- Sylvia Acevedo applied her engineering training to re-conceive a way for employers to communicate with non-native speakers.
- Beth Butler used entrepreneurial enterprise to transform her taste for food service into creating an entertaining bilingual educational commodity.
- Tammie Aaron-Barrada, mother of two small children, reinvented herself and her business direction after her husband died and her idea is stolen by a large company.
- Nancy Kerrigan once believed that all inventors were highly educated men until she and her invention won a spot on the Jane Pauley Show.
- Barbara Russle Pitts and Mary Russle Sarao are a sister team, guided by a falling star to the goodwill that helped them develop a product that now generates $15 million in sales per year.
Rhodes has combined forces with Patricia Harrelson to record these stories. The book is rich with imagination, intelligence, and the uniquely feminine perspective that led these women to succeed in a field typically dominated
by men. Ultimately each story reveals the generous nature of women as they turn dreams into tangible products.
