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Arming women road warriors
 Women make up almost half of modern business travelers. BUSINESS TRAVELLER
QUICKVOTEYOUR SAY
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- They account for almost half of all business travelers, their custom is worth millions of dollars, and yet the interests of women are still being overlooked by companies catering to executives on the go. So says Kathleen Ameche, a veteran jet-setter who has written a new book to arm women with tips to survive in a sometimes hostile world. "The Woman Road Warrior Ameche, who has clocked up to 300 days travel a year, wrote the book in response to what she felt was a lack of advice for women starting out on the globetrotting circuit. "I have traveled my entire career. I first started out on what was supposed to be a six week trip and ended up on the road for five years," she told CNN. "Back then, there were books on how to dress for success, that kind of thing, but nothing about how to negotiate the travel maze." Combining basic security advice with more straightforward tips on in-room work-outs, how and what to pack Ameche says her book is an attempt to present an alternate viewpoint on a male-oriented sector. "Every other industry seems to have figured out that men and women are different. The travel industry is slow on the uptake," she said. "We're not saying 'poor us, we need help.' We're not saying that we're porcelain dolls. We're just saying that we're a different voice that needs to be listened to." Ameche has overcome her own share of challenges on-the-road, including losing her jewelry to thieves in a hotel in Milwaukee, to potentially life-threatening encounters -- for which she advises keeping a cool head. "I have a had a gun pulled on me at 6.30 in the morning in a cab on the way to Chicago's airport. The driver was showing me how he threatened someone with it. He was clearly unbalanced. "I had a choice of getting out on the expressway at six in the morning, or talking calmly to him until we arrived safely at the airport. I chose the second one, caught my plane then called the police safely from my destination." The lesson, one of many Ameche has learned from fraught experience, is to only use a trusted cab firm -- and preferably only a trusted driver. Better networkingAlthough her book is an attempt to improve the life of women business travelers, she says things are already getting better, as companies wise up to their potential. "I find that some hotels in the States are being more user friendly for women, with lounges for women. There's even a hotel in London that has an entire wing just for women." "For these places, it makes good sense. Women are very, very loyal, when they find something the like, they stick with it." According to Ameche, employers would also be advised to press for better facilities for women on the road, as they will benefit from the improved business-to-business ties. "We're more chatty, if we have places to meet, we're going to sit down and get to know each other, not just on a superficial level, and we're going to build a network of people that way." 
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," published earlier this year, draws on Chicago-based Ameche's 20-plus years in the field to show ways of redressing the balance in modern business travel.
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