People say to me, 'Has being a woman helped or hindered your career?' And the answer is yes.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the complexity of gender dynamics in the workplace, showing how being a woman can both aid and obstruct one's career.
Sallie Krawcheck's quote emphasizes the duality of experiences faced by women in professional environments. The phrase 'yes' indicates that being a woman brings both benefits, such as unique perspectives and support networks, as well as challenges, including biases and obstacles. This nuanced understanding highlights the need to acknowledge both the advantages and the difficulties women encounter in their careers.
In practice
In a keynote speech about gender in the workplace, this quote could illustrate the importance of understanding both the privileges and challenges faced by women.
What you hear and what the research shows is that gentlemen negotiate for their first job. Women do not negotiate from their first job and on. And I tell women there is no H.R. fairy godmother. There might be, but you better not count on it.
The research indicates that when we women invest, we women do tend to be more patient, take a longer-term perspective and as a result of it, tend to be better investors than men. But the messages we get are that investing is sort of 'the guys' world.'
As an entrepreneur, I've learned how crucial it is to be able to call a spade a spade and avoid falling in love with a particular strategy or product. Instead, you need to let the customer tell you what she needs - and to change her as she changes.
Somehow, there is this feeling that women require remedial financial education, and so everything must be dumbed down. The reality is that we all need a lot more education, but guys just go ahead and invest anyway.
If you aren't committed to diversity of thought, you have no business launching a startup.
In the old world of business, there was often just one seat at the leadership table for women, two at best. That meant that only so many women could advance. But in a world where women recognize the power that they own - and where technology can upend the traditional rules of engagement - one woman winning doesn't mean another loses.
Women like to sit down with trouble - as if it were knitting.
The message I like to convey to women and girls across the globe is that there is no glass ceiling.
Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.
We all fight over what the label 'feminism' means but for me it's about empowerment. It's not about being more powerful than men - it's about having equal rights with protection, support, justice. It's about very basic things. It's not a badge like a fashion item.
The older I get, the more impressed I am with women. I have yet to meet a woman who is not strong. They don't exist.
We teach girls shame; close your legs, cover yourself, we make them feel as though by being born female they're already guilty of something.
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