Janet Hanson is tired of hearing stories about what women have not achieved in the professional realm. That's one reason the former Goldman Sachs trader decided to write More Than 85 Broads, a book about women who have prospered on macho Wall Street. The book draws its title from 85 Broads, a network that Hanson founded in 1997 for female ex-employees of Goldman (headquartered at 85 Broad Street in New York). The group has since grown into a 13,000-strong network of professional women working at various institutions.

"Strength, confidence, enthusiasm, humor and resilience are all things not necessarily synonymous with women. They should be," says Hanson, 53. In the book's introduction she relays her own difficulties adjusting to life after leaving Goldman in 1991. (Burned out after 14 years in sales and trading, she nonetheless missed the challenge and camaraderie she felt at the firm and started her own money management company, Milestone Capital Management.) Her book also profiles female trailblazers in other walks of life, such as philanthropy and the armed services.

Hanson hopes that both men and women read the book and that it encourages an open dialogue about gender relations in the workplace. Among those to whom she has dedicated More Than 85 Broads are the Wall Street men who have worked to further the position of women in the industry, such as former Goldman co-chairman John Whitehead and Lehman Brothers president Joe Gregory. Male mentors also feature prominently in many of the book's stories. "We are trying to inspire people," says Hanson.