The Eldest Daughter Effect: How Firstborn Women – like Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg, JK Rowling and Beyoncé – Harness their Strengths

Written by Lisette Schuitemaker and Wies Enthoven

Narrated by Lisette Schuitemaker

"What do Angela Merkel, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christine Lagarde, Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg, JK Rowling and Beyoncé have in common?" was the headline in the English newspaper The Observer in 2014. "Other than riding high in Forbes list of the world’s most powerful women," journalist Tracy McVeigh wrote in answer to her own question, "they are also all firstborn children in their families. Firstborn children really do excel."

So what does it mean to be an eldest daughter?

Firstborns Lisette Schuitemaker and Wies Enthoven set out to discover the big five qualities that characterize all eldest daughters to some degree. Eldest daughters are responsible, dutiful, thoughtful, expeditious and caring. Firstborns are more intelligent than their siblings, more proficient verbally and more motivated to perform. Yet at the same time they seriously doubt that they are good enough. Being an eldest daughter can have certain advantages, but the overbearing sense of responsibility often gets in the way. Parents may worry about their ‘difficult’ eldest girl who wants to be perfect in everything she does whilst her siblings may not always understand her. "The Eldest Daughter Effect" shows how firstborn girls become who they are and offers insights that can give them more freedom to move. And parents will gain a better understanding of their firstborn children and can support them more fully on their way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inner Traditions Audio
• Release date: Aug 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644110546

Lisette Schuitemaker

Lisette Schuitemaker founded, ran, and sold a communications company before becoming a healer, life coach, and personal development author. She studied the work of Wilhelm Reich as part of obtaining her BSc in Brennan Healing Science. She is the author of The Childhood Conclusions Fix and Childless Living and co-author of The Eldest Daughter Effect. Lisette lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Reviews for The Eldest Daughter Effect

[Madison Hope Veitch · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was “okay” at best. While I think it romanticized childhood and generalized a lot, my main gripe was that it really didn’t actually speak to the tagline. Other than pointing out that the famous people listed on the cover were first born daughters and that they had remarked about feeling some of the same ways that eldest daughters typically did, there really was no advice or information about HOW they used their eldest daughter attributes to be successful. I also felt like there was a missed opportunity with the focus on divorce. They spoke about blended families down the line, but didn’t acknowledge at all how’s divorce during formative years could change the dynamic between children and first born kids. I understand that they may not have had the data on that, but overall the science was quite thin in this book so they could have at least acknowledged it in some way.