Recognize that you are in a business context and business is about problems and particularly about solving them, fast and completely. A certain amount of conflict, disagreement, sparring about issues, debating choices and solutions is inevitable. It's a rough and tumble world out there. If you equate speaking up with being unpleasant and unfeminine, and particularly with some man not thinking you're the girl he'd like to invite to the prom, then you are already on the down escalator, thinking you might magically, somehow, be going up. Judy B. Rosener's research published in the Harvard Business Review identifies male-female communication style differences.
Men are much more aggressive and go for the jugular.
Hinting preserves not only harmony but deniability. If you hint and someone doesn't like it, you can deny you meant it that way. When something happens at work which is dismissive of you or excludes you, you must either speak up or exit the situation, if you truly want to redirect the flow of events and launch some real communication. Clinging to either end of the range is a recipe for failure. Many women worry that assertive behavior will upset men and lead to disfavor.