About
Kathy Stearman is a retired FBI Special Agent and author of forthcoming memoir, It’s Not About the Gun: Lessons from My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent, to be published on June 1, 2021, by Pegasus Books. Kathy’s memoir focuses on her time overseas as Legal Attaché, head of FBI offices in south-central Asia and China. In her book, Kathy reveals who she became in order to survive in a man’s world, and who she is now that her life is her own.
To learn more about Kathy and her memoir, take a look at her website, https://kathystearman.com/; email Kathy at Kathy@KathyStearman.com; or find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PaisleyLioness.
Kathy also writes narrative non-fiction and essays related to international travel, the current political and social climate, and growing up on a remote farm in central Kentucky. She is currently researching topics for her next book.
Featured Work
It's Not About the Gun: Lessons from My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent
When she entered the FBI Academy in 1987,
Stearman was one of about 600 women in a force
of 10,000 agents. While there, she evolved into an
assertive woman, working her way up the ranks and
across the globe to hold positions that very few women
have held before. And yet, even at the height of her
career, Stearman had to check herself to make sure
that she never appeared weak, inferior, or afraid. The
accepted attitude for women in power has long been
cool, calm, and in control—even though Stearman
herself is funny, personable, and empathetic.
Stearman changed for the FBI, but she longs for
a different path for future women of the Bureau. If the
system changes, then women can remain constant,
valuing their female identity and nurturing the people
they truly are.
From the rolling hills of Kentucky to the rigors of
training camp, from the chaos of New Delhi to the
fog and intrigue in Beijing, It’s Not About the Gun,
paints a vivid picture of life as a woman in the FBI,
and reveals how Stearman’s perception of her
country and the FBI has evolved as America—and
the world—continues to change.
