content: Focuses too much on outdated gender issues. As a professional woman nearing 30, I'm not fighting for a piece of the pie run by good old boys who want to keep me down, I'm trying to overcome inclinations to be passive - with women, men, even just with myself - and learn techniques for communicating directly and clearly instead of trying to handle everything all the time or try to make everyone else's life easier at the expense of my own. This book is not helpful to someone like me. It's also very repetitive, and too much loves its own branding, rubbing the reader's nose in what "Civilized Assertiveness" means, seemingly as an attempt at product marketing. I just want some straight tools, tips, exercises for making changes, and this book is not that.