
My Review (4 stars out of 5)
(Audiobook)
As a Special Agent with the FBI, Kathy Stearman spent twenty-six years with the Bureau, one of only 600 women among 10,000 agents. Faced with sexist and misogynistic attitudes from the outset, she fought her way up to the position of FBI Legal Attaché and held positions in several countries, including China and India.
This book is not about the octane-fuelled, gun-toting antics of the FBI as seen on TV, but the real-life work carried out by legal attaches around the world and, more importantly, about how women are treated in the Bureau. Not having read anything by former FBI agents before, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book, but it’s an entertaining and thought-provoking tale that gives an insight into what the organisation does and how they function. While the author’s treatment by fellow agents is at times quite shocking, she does seem to paint virtually every male agent as a total dick with no appreciation of how to treat women. That said, it’s an enjoyable book that provides some understanding of the internal politics and chauvinistic shenanigans that are still prevalent in many organisations around the world.
HI Colin, this is very interesting. I was saying to my sister just today that if 10% of the world population measured by culture are reasonably enlightened in their attitudes towards women, that is a lot in my estimation. Sexism is still very alive and well and it makes life very hard for professional women.
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Absolutely – it’s ridiculous that such attitudes still persist. Men are such dicks.
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