The "Female Firebrands" audiobook is an empowering and enlightening collection of stories that celebrates the extraordinary achievements and enduring legacies of women who have blazed trails, shattered stereotypes, and inspired generations. Narrated with passion and conviction, this audiobook offers listeners a powerful glimpse into the lives and accomplishments of some of history's most remarkable female figures.

From activists and artists to scientists and leaders, the "Female Firebrands" audiobook features a diverse array of women whose contributions have left an indelible mark on the world. Through a series of captivating narratives and insightful commentary, listeners are transported across time and space to witness the triumphs and challenges faced by these trailblazing women, from Susan B. Anthony's tireless advocacy for women's suffrage to Malala Yousafzai's courageous fight for girls' education.

What sets the "Female Firebrands" audiobook apart is its ability to inspire and uplift listeners, offering a powerful reminder of the resilience, determination, and tenacity of women throughout history. As each story unfolds, listeners are reminded of the immense potential for change and progress that lies within each of us, and the importance of standing up for what we believe in, no matter the obstacles we may face.

The narration of the audiobook is both engaging and emotive, with each story brought to life through the skilled performances of the narrators. Whether recounting the triumphs of Rosa Parks, the bravery of Amelia Earhart, or the groundbreaking achievements of Marie Curie, the narrators capture the passion and spirit of each woman, drawing listeners into their stories and inspiring them to take action in their own lives.

In conclusion, the "Female Firebrands" audiobook is a compelling and empowering listen that celebrates the remarkable contributions of women throughout history. With its engaging narration, captivating storytelling, and powerful message of inspiration and empowerment, this audiobook is sure to leave listeners feeling inspired, enlightened, and ready to make their own mark on the world. Whether you're a history buff, a feminist activist, or simply someone looking for a dose of inspiration, the "Female Firebrands" audiobook is a must-listen for anyone who believes in the power of women to change the world.

"Female Firebrands" is an overall okay book. It's a little uninteresting for someone who's already up to date on current events and doesn't seem to offer a lot of new information.

Loved all the stories and insights. I wish there could’ve been more detail/insights instead of just a brief history and overview.

Highly recommend to feel empowered. Great narration and very easy to follow. Thank you NetGalley and Mikaela Kiner!

Thank you NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Dnf 76%

This is not what I was expecting based on the title of this book. I thought this was going to be inspiring stories from strong women leaders, and tips on how to be a strong woman in today's society.

This book seems to be extremely political, and calls out current and former politicians for their actions. Most of what was said in the second half of the book was mostly about social movements that if you pay any attention to current media you already know about.

The only thing I appreciated from the second part of this book was understanding privilege, and realizing the things you do that are unconsciously prejudiced.

I got the audiobook off NetGalley and I’m glad I did. This is an agitating read, to say the least, because the stories shared by the Firebrands are painful to hear. Misogyny and sexism is a huge issue in daily life and workplaces can be a real microcosm of these issues.

I wish the book had delved a little more into profiling each Firebrand rather than just highlighting her career in a brief page. I would have liked to know how and what steps they took to be the entrepreneurs they are. A little like how the author introduces herself at the start of the book.

I found it a bit strange that the book occasionally repeated anecdotes from one section to the other. It’s ok to contextualize them but sometimes they were plonked in there like it was new information even though it wasn’t.

Some of the terminology was quite outdated - Personal Pronouns should be used not Preferred Pronouns. It should be Native Americans not American Indians.

I was surprised that no transgender women were featured and there was no conversation about the difficulties that non-cis people face.

I feel like sizism should have been addressed as well considering many people have mentioned that this kind of prejudice leads to barriers in the workplace.

Despite the missed opportunities, I feel like some segments of women will find this book as a helpful guide to navigate the workplace. Other folks can also refer to the self help guidelines.

This is, however, a must-read for men (especially men in power) so that they can stop being so ignorant of their privilege and actually take notice of just how much people who aren’t like them have to adjust and reshape themselves to get anywhere in their careers.

Female Firebrands by Mikaela Kiner has made me much more aware of my own biases toward women. I never considered that I held a higher standard for women than I do for men, or that I would be competitive in toxic ways. As a woman, this book has opened my eyes to ideas of working better with women, instead of working against them.

This is a book representing gender equality. She takes you through stories and give you examples on how to react in similar situations. These topics covered can never be talked about enough. It took a few chapters to get into it, but I was intrigued the rest of the read.

I enjoyed listening to this on audio. This book should be essential for all managers or employees in HR in the corporate world. This book addresses the many issues with gender equality in the workforce. It's frustrating and disheartening that gender inequality still exists in 2020. Kiner did a great job at highlighting many scenarios where women are considered less capable than man. She conducted thorough research to emphasize the trend for all women - regardless of race, sexuality, and religion. This book should be mandatory for all CEOs and should be put into the hands of many powerful men.

Thank you to Netgalley for the audiobook!

This book focuses on working within the USA tech sector. Mikaela Kiner is a HR professional and gives personal insight into working in this area at different points in her career, which I respected and appreciated. The beginning of the book wasn't something I could easily relate to - I'm UK based and have worked in the creative and charity sector. However, as the scope broadens there's a lot of really good stuff here that as a mid-career woman I completely related to (and even had a sore neck from nodding throughout some chapters!). Although, at the beginning of the book I enjoyed listening to the varied stories/biographies of other female firebrands - I began to find it tiresome. Partly, because of the narrator's voice (which I found quite irritating and off-putting) and because for a book like this it seemed like a missed opportunity not to hear other women's voices.

However, this book examined real issues facing women today and it was a relief to listen to these stories and to receive techniques to manage situations and responses. It taught me a new language and provided tools and context to aid my understanding of past experiences. As a woman of colour I hadn't heard of the 'concrete ceiling' but have definitely experienced it! This book doesn't shy away from difficult topics and I found the chapter on female rivalry illuminating. The glossary at the end is well thought out and useful and so is the free online resources. This book is a necessary read, for all genders and generations - I only wish it was available earlier in my career!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It has been published in January 2021.

"Female Firebrands" by Mikaela Kiner is a very well documented, well researched book about how women can thrive in the business world despite all the obstacles that our patriarchal, male-centred society puts in their way.
The book focuses on themes such as sexual harrassment on the workplace, the gender pay gap, the infamous glass ceiling and several other thorny issues that any working woman finds herself facing in her life, no matter what sector she works in or how many digits are on her payslip.
I could totally relate to most of the issues raised in this book and was keen to hear some good advice on how to handle myself in the jungle of workplace gender-based discrimination.
That said, I found the style a bit boring and impersonal.
The first part of the book is an interminable collection of short biographies, one for each of the women who will later give her opinion on the different problems the book focuses on. Some of the biographies are more detailed than others, but all of them feel extremely cold, detached, like the kind of brief introduction that speakers get at public events. To some of the women I could relate, to others not so much, but by the time they were quoted - much, much later in the book - in reference to one issue or another, I had totally forgot which woman was which, and I was unable to skip back to match the name to the bio, because the copy I have is an audiobook, not a physical book when you can just skip back and forth in case you need to refresh your memory.
It didn't help that all the women quoted had a very impersonal, neutral voice, that made them all sound exactly the same.
Overall, I believe the idea behind this book is commendable, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

A highly relatable and personal account of some of the injustices in the workplace, perfectly balanced with real stories and end of chapter checklists for success. An important book for both for empowering womxn and allies in the workplace alike.

This book was equally eye-opening and thought-invoking. I have finished the book feeling inspired to ask my Managing Director for 'that' opportunity, to better my own work experience and of my team. This book has subconsciously taught me more about managing a team in a few hours than a mentor has in a couple of years.

Kiner draws from personal experiences and interviews with womxn to demonstrate key points throughout. The book is broken down into two sections. Part one highlights the stories of inspiring womxn, providing background information as well as an insight into their individual journey. A clear effort has been made to be inclusive of womxn with different backgrounds and experiences including LBGTQIA+ and BIPOC. Part two covers specific workplace issues in more depth and provides checklists for improvement at the end of each chapter for reflection.

Whilst this audiobook was not narrated by the author of the book, Eickhoff does a fantastic job of bringing the book to life and gives the listener the feeling of taking part in a conference, lecture, or even a podcast. The pacing was good and each chapter separated clearly.

Having enjoyed the audiobook and consequently purchased an ebook copy, I believe that this book is best suited to print or ebook in order to fully appreciate the end of chapter checklists, quotes, and tips. Ideal for highlighting and future referencing!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher, Greenleaf, for this free audiobook for review.

I found this an important book for women in all positions, financial standing, and physical capabilities.

Included in this book are the experiences of 13 successful women in familiar work environments, each one giving us a peek of their challenges; the manipulations they experienced in their work; the undermining of their career paths. These anecdotes are told in this book and have been experienced by countless women worldwide.

My only criticism of this book would be, it was a perfect starting point as a consultancy introduction, but I wanted it to be a more in-depth book, to know more about these women’s stories.

I would also like to note that the narrator Julie Eickhoff, had a voice that made me feel like I was part of the conversation.

I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity of reading/listening this audiobook, in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyed the compilation of female firebrands the author presents, but I found the second part of the book, when we get down to the nitty gritty issues of the workplace, more useful than the introductions (though these can be inspiring for some people). I also think that this book works better as a physical copy because of the formatting - the checklists after the chapters and the little firebrand advice blurbs scattered about.

I received an audio copy of this book for my honest review.

I really liked this book! I love the focus on how these different women made the work place work for them!

This book's theme reminded me of ReThink by Andi Simon, which I also really liked. I love learning about simple things we do as women (even if a man does the same), can be interpreted in such a different way! It really helps me think through things and how I should react while in the workplace!

Unfortunately, this book brought nothing new for me. The author worked for Amazon and a couple other big companies so I don't doubt she has experience and knowledge on the topic, but having read a couple of similar books before this was just meh for me. The stories of the women interviewed were interesting, however it took almost a third of the book to go through them and I didn't like having them all one after another because ultimately they were all mixed in my head. All in all, not bad, especially if you are just starting to read in this genre.

Used for NETGALLEY TESTING purposes on AUDIO playback only. EXCELLENT audio. No dragging or problems with live streaming on iPhone device.

This is my first audiobook from Netgalley and I requested it because I was curious to know about the female CEOs and their stories.

However, the stories form only a small part of the narrative. The CEOs are introduced and a brief history about their work is given. I'd have liked to hear from the CEOs themselves about how they overcame their challenges.

The author then talks about gender disparity, harrassment, and other challenges women face in the corporate world. I liked that she had included the challenges of POC too, like a true feminist.

I'm not sure about the target audience for this book, but I'd recommend this book for every person stepping into the corporate world for the first time.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. The views are entirely mine.

I really thought I would enjoy this. I was thinking I would hear stories of different women and how they were changing things. This however is a boohoo women book that trys to give a shot out to these women and there new businesses and less of an actual achievement book. I was completely disappointed. The way it is read/written was horrible. I would not recommend this to any women I know.

The best way to classify this book for me is in a category of self-help and educational content. Things I enjoyed: I really liked that intersectionality and the difference in prejudice that white and POC women face was addressed. A lot of books on feminism focus on white feminism, so it was good to see that this was more widely applicable and didn't ignore a huge population of women. I also really liked that after each chapter there was a checklist that gave actionable advice to people from different categories: male allies, women in the business world, HR directors, etc.
Where this book could improve for me: I wish the interviews with the 8/9(?) different women were expanded upon more. The credentials and accomplishments of the women were exceptional but hearing only one general piece of advice from each wasn't as useful as exploring each story. I found myself wanting to know how these women got to where they did, and wanting to hear more from them.
Overall, I would recommend this for women (and men!) in the business world.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to review this book in exchange of an honest review.