Pioneer : A Woman in a Man's World of Sales

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 life's 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" career-the good and the bad-and tells of one woman's 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.

After I retired I was told by several people that the word going around about me was, "She did not want to play ball with us, so she left." I've thought a lot about that statement. I certainly have never been one to refuse to do what was asked of me, if it was reasonable. However, I do think the statement is an accurate one. If playing ball with them meant not standing up for what I thought was right, then I did not want to play that kind of ball. If it meant letting them buy me out and selling my soul, I certainly did not want to play that kind of ball. If it meant sleeping with the boss, I was not interested in playing that kind of ball. If it meant lying about others so I could get ahead, I know I could not play that kind of ball. So, they were right. I did not want to, nor could I, play their kind of ball.