A book that leaves you pondering and gives great social commentary on the glass ceiling that very much still exists between women and equality in both the workplace and life, is always an excellent read. Rape law and sexism were common dinner table topics in my childhood, and I knew about implicit bias before I knew about blowjobs. When I started the job, one of the projects represented by my agency was under option with a production company where I knew a senior executive. I was complimented for having “good energy”, and my “niches” were identified as “women” and “books”.

I thought the project had a lot of promise and wanted to see if there was anything I could do to push it forward.Although I don’t think she would have described herself in this way, I thought that she was extremely strong willed and she had a firm understanding of her own boundaries. I thought it was important that even characters that were very in touch what what was acceptable or not fell into that trap.

When I drove onto the studio lot for my first day of work, I was 23 years old and considered myself fiercely principled. I felt personally that I’m just a little bit out of the age range for this as some of the situations in the book were fairly obviously on the way and she just didn’t seem to pick up on the cues. Everyone likes to speak loudly and frequently about how committed they are to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and on screen. It is widely understood that you are not to grope or make sexual advances on your employees, and that if you do so, you may face consequences.While I don’t want to talk too much about the detailed plot, I do want to describe the overall feel of the book. People previously unaware of the terms “implicit bias” and “microaggressions” have now attended training sessions about them and know that they are bad. I also knew he had passed on projects I advocated for because of their “narrow” focus on mostly women.

She was needy, unreasonable and insistent on maintaining a strong dependency between herself and her daughter. Please get in touch and we will do our best to source your book, no matter how unusual or specialist. But certain gendered instincts – people pleasing, playing peacemaker, considering another person’s comfort a precondition for my own – served me well.I loved that the ambiguous ending flipped things onto you and made you think about what you would do if you were ever faced with an unfair, difficult situation. From my perch outside my boss’s office, I saw how little my personal opinion mattered, how interchangeable and dispensable I was. I understood, in theory, that Hollywood was a hotbed of sexism, racism and unchecked egos, but I had grand ambitions of making change from the inside. I remember being 23, anxiously navigating halls where executives didn’t look me in the eye, holding the muted phone to my ear, thinking: if I have the opportunity to speak, I hope I make the most of it.

Despite (or, more accurately, because of) its gritty, often raw depiction of a shocking reality for so many women, Not Safe for Work pulled me in. This summarises the theme of the book pretty well, as a Hollywood wannabe climbs the slippery slope to greatness.I don’t know how the daughter (I keep saying daughter as she was unnamed in the book) kept her patience and was mostly able to stay polite and courteous as I think I would have cut ties very early on. I heard sexist and racist comments and fumed silently, exchanging outraged instant messages with other assistants. In fact, it pulled me right in through its mix of exploring serious topics such as sexual harassment and abuse, but told from the POV of a woman who is smart, sassy and not afraid of seeing the irony in a situation. Maybe that’s the fun of it – sitting on the couch, internally/externally willing someone to spot the creep(s).