Heavenly Tyrant, the 2nd book in the Iron Widow series by Xiran Jay Zhou.
I stumbled onto it randomly but it has all the things I love. It’s sci-fi with fantasy elements, anti-imperialism, and pro worker class warfare.
The protagonist is a teen girl who is flawed but strong-willed. She doesn’t have all the right answers, she makes mistakes, and there are certainly people better than her. She seems real.
There’s a kind of pacific rim meets starship troopers aspect to it. They use chi-powered “mechs” to fight alien invaders.
The first book has some surprise revelations at the end that the 2nd book addresses.
Librarian here. One of the reasons librarianship was dominated by women was bc Dewey convinced people they could pay them less. Also, he likes to use his power to form sexual relationships. The subject headings that his decimal system uses are still problematic to this day.