Pioneer

Book excerpt: Jeanne Adelmann was raised in a middleclass, blue-collar family. Growing up in a male dominated world at home and in her community may have prepared her for her lifes work in insurance sales. When she started in 1978, there were very few women in sales and no women in sales management. She attained the highest level for a female in field sales in her company. In this frank memoir, she looks back at her pioneering careerthe good and the badand tells of one womans struggle to break down barriers in the business world of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. She recounts her uphill battle with splashes of humor as she struggles to open doors for women. Jeanne faced many challenges during her twenty-three years in insurance sales. She is proud of her work as a pioneer in creating new opportunities for those who followed her, opportunities that were not there for her when she entered the world of sales.