The Whisper Network

 

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A workplace drama that highlights the difficulties of working women, from being ignored and under appreciated, to double standards for behavior, to sexual harassment. This isn't a perfect book and it only identifies with women working in defined jobs, but I did love the way these women looked out and supported each other despite the ways they also let each other down. I loved that several perspectives were portrayed: a new mother, a single mother, wife as main wage-earner, woman working in manual labor job, etc. For the most part they were portrayed as liking their jobs, being competent, and professional, moral people, and still having to struggle for recognition, validation, and respect. The chorus that starts out several chapters was genius. It included us in the frustrations we experience, the unfairness we witness, the demands that are unique to females (including demands by other females) helping us to see how we are all in this together--helping and hurting each other. At one point one character tells another "When another woman offers to help you, you take it. You understand?" --underscoring Baker's point that when we as women help each other, we help ourselves. (Although this a working woman's issue book, I think working men should also read it, to help understand and empathize with their working women colleagues).

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