Author highlights women’s workplace obstacles with humor

        Author Anastasia Ryan wants to have a discussion about a serious issue, but she’d also like to engage readers and make them laugh along the way.
        The local writer has come out with her second book, titled “Not Bad for a Girl,” which details the obstacles women may face in the workplace.
        Ryan, a native of Washington, D.C. got her bachelor’s degree from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, and earned a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University.
        She discussed the message she is trying to get across to her readers.
        “The workforce is changing, with more people working from home, creating a new type of office environment. Traditionally, compared to her male counterparts, a woman who is assertive, young and feminine, may be considered bossy and therefore not leadership material,” said Ryan. “But what if she is mistaken for a he? My main character’s name is Indiana, and with her Zoom camera turned off, her boss thinks she’s a man, and he treats her differently. She rolls with it, and it snowballs out of her control. It’s a satirical comedy.
        “Being funny and engaging is a big part of this book. I have something I want to say in a non-confrontational, non-aggressive way. I want to start a conversation that is enlightening rather than angry. We still have women who aren’t making as much money and who don’t have the same advancement opportunities as their male counterparts. It’s a systemic issue. People aren’t deliberately setting out to hold women down, but our system frequently does. There are men in these stories who are very supportive of women. I want to emphasize that the book is not meant to be seen as men versus women. The patriarchy is bad – not men.”
        It can be challenging for a woman to work in a male-dominated profession and earn equal pay, Ryan says.
        “The female in my book is a coder, a field that is 90% male, and women tend to make less money and may get passed over for a promotion,” she said. “That’s something that, unfortunately, a lot of us can relate to, regardless of our professions.”
        Again, many of the problems are systematic.
        “Women can hold each other back –– that’s something I try to address,” said Ryan. “It’s not the individual, it’s the system. We’re taught to be prettier, smarter, better than the next woman. I’ve done my best to focus on strong, supportive female relationships.
        “Despite the hurdles that have yet to be overcome, we’re living in a time when it’s easier to talk about some of the issues regarding people’s rights that weren’t discussed very much in the past.
        “That holds power in and of itself,” said Ryan.
        Ryan has been living in Northwest Ohio for 15 years. She decided to stay after earning her degree from BGSU.
        “BGSU has the popular culture program, the only one in the United States,” Ryan said. “I came here for that program, and the class had people from all over the world. I stayed and started teaching at the university. I taught for three years at BGSU.”
        Ryan’s first book was “You Should Smile More.”
        “It didn’t take very long to write – about four months. It took one year to edit it, pull the themes together, make it into a good story and then send it out to agents,” Ryan said. “It’s about a woman fired for having a resting ‘b’ face. I sent it to an agent who had been fired for her resting ‘b’ face. She asked if she could represent me, and we got a book deal pretty quickly.”
        As for now, Ryan is focused on changing things up.
        “I am working on a fantasy, switching genres a bit and exploring something new,” she said. “I’d still like to continue writing.”