Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her

Robin Gerber‚ a noted author and speaker on women and leadership‚ skillfully entwines the stories of two exceptional women. There's Barbie: the diminutive yet arrestingly voluptuous doll unveiled at the 1959 Toy Fair to the disdain of the male buyers. She transcended her strange beginnings as the improbable offspring of 1950s American paper dolls and a European sex toy to be treasured by 90% of American girls and their counterparts in 140 countries‚ as well as to become an Olympic athlete‚ Air Force pilot‚ boutique owner‚ Presidential candidate‚ and a cultural icon.

And there's Ruth Handler‚ Barbie's creator: the tenth child of Polish-Jewish immigrants; a brash‚ passionately competitive and creative business pioneer who stopped at nothing for her vision; a mother and wife who wanted it all; a business phenom and cofounder of Mattel who was forced out amid corporate scandal‚ turned the tragedy of her own breast cancer into a business that changed women's lives‚ and was ultimately honored as a pioneer‚ humanitarian‚ masterful entrepreneur‚ and the indomitable mother of the world's most famous doll.

How Ruth came to be Ruth‚ how Barbie came to be Ruth's brainchild‚ and how together they indelibly changed American business and culture is the terrain of this fascinating biography.