A fully updated 40th anniversary edition of the pioneering handbook for female assertiveness - an indispensable guide to stating what you feel and want Despite recent advances in gender equality in education, the home and the workplace, in practice many girls and women still find it a challenge to speak up and be heard.
Assertiveness - defined by psychologist and assertiveness trainer Anne Dickson as clear, honest and direct communication - is an art, which must be learned. Instead of being governed by the temptation either to please or blame others - the 'compassion trap' - assertiveness teaches us to take charge of our own feelings and behaviour.
In her classic handbook, now fully updated to mark its 40th anniversary, Dickson draws on her long experience of in-person training to give all feminists the practical skills and tools we need to assert what we feel and want, manage difficult conversations, avoid being side-tracked by culturally learned behaviours, say 'No', and find self-acceptance.
