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| Connect With Ten of The More Than 125 Wise Women Mentors Appearing in Hard Won Wisdom and Mustang Sallies |
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 "Every individual matters, has a role to play and makes a difference. We have this huge collective power. If only we'd use it. We have this great "me-ism." You know, "I'm one person. I live in an expanding world of people. What can I do to make any difference?" It's apathy. What the individual does really matters. You need to feel that you are contributing to society. Maybe it's boring in your workplace, but work isn't the only part of your life. You have evenings, weekends, holidays. And all the time, we can influence other people by what we say. What our attitudes are. Even in the most boring job, you can make a difference with your fellow workers, just with your attitude."
Jane Goodall
Anthropologist
Her work with chimpanzees in Africa has captivated us for decades. She ventured into Africa when women didn't do such things. From her research, she has a powerful perspective on the difference between male and female behavior. |
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 “My big problem is keeping myself from crying. I fail more than I succeed. When I get mad, I cry. We lose dignity when we cry, and people expect us to be stronger than that. My mother thinks it is so terrible -- a good girl doesn’t cry because she doesn’t impose her feelings on other people. Well, I wish somebody could give me a pill so I wouldn’t cry. But, since it’s not a guy problem, it hasn’t been invented.”
Cokie Roberts
ABC News
The ABC News and National Public Radio icon shares what it’s like to be thrown into the catfight of women in network anchoring, and just how different the rules are for men and women.
She nails 'em on the Sunday morning programs, but tough as she is, she's one of us. Roberts tells of juggling the responsibilities of parenthood with her ambitions as a journalist. |
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 “Having self-possession and self-awareness is important. Having the self-confidence to try enough so you learn who you are and what you are capable of is important. No one learns who they are or what they are capable of without risk and without mistakes. In the end, you have got to be happy with who you are. You’ve got to be proud of who you are. You’ve got to like who you are. No amount of money and no amount of power and no amount of success can make up for unhappiness about who you are.”
Carly Fiorina
CEO, Hewlett Packard
Fortune named her “The Most Powerful Woman in Business,” and Hewlett-Packard proved it when it made her the the highest ranking female CEO in the Fortune 500. Fiorina majored in medieval history and philosophy in college, dropped out of law school in her first year, then bounced from jobs like receptionist and teacher until she found her place in corporate America. Since leaving HP, she's gained notice as a speaker and a potential political leader.
One the most powerful woman in business, says relationships are everything in business -- especially the relationship you have with yourself. |
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 “If you're going to just go with the flow, you have to get out. If you're not going to go with the flow, then you blast forward. What other options are there?”
Pat Schroeder
Former Congresswoman. Trailblazer. Legend.
She said more in a sound bite than the Congressional Record could report in a week, and she did it for us. This true legend in women’s history tells us how to break through the walls of discrimination and offering a powerful perspective on a woman's traditional need to be liked by everyone.
The criticism was non-stop when she hit the House Floor. She kept pushing. They attacked her politics, her ability as a mother -- even her hair. |
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Sylvia Earle
Oceanographer, Explorer |
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 “I don't let anyone else judge me, which means I don't absorb the flattery, the compliments or the praise, but I also don’t absorb the criticism and the things that are very negative from others. I have to judge myself.”
Gen. Claudia Kennedy
Retired, U.S. Army
We read the headlines when she was promoted to Lieutenant General, making her the the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. Army. Then she really made headlines before retirement when she filed an assault complaint against another general. Kennedy's reputation was so clean and she carried so much clout that the allegations were substantiated and the other general forced out..
She was the highest ranking woman in the U.S. Army. The media loved her. Politicians hailed her. Then she started talking. |
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 “There is this very macho mind game playing that they do -- a lot of lying to each other and bravado... I have watched them win using this mind game. I tried some of it and failed miserably. I couldn’t play it and I finally went to not playing mind games…They’d ask a question and I’d be 100 percent truthful. That was confusing to them. They thought I was lying. They thought I was playing a mind game. They didn’t get my ways any more than I got theirs.”
Susan Butcher
Iditarod Champion
When Susan Butcher started racing in Alaska's grueling Iditarod, few could imagine a woman even competing in the 1,049-mile dogsled race from Anchorage to Nome -- much less winning. Butcher won four times, and t-shirts were sold that proclaimed, "Alaska. Where men are men and women win the Iditarod." The champion was so resented by her male competitors that, one year, someone hid the route markings on her and forced her down to ninth place.
After becoming the most successful woman musher in history, she found her true self by balancing her life. |
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 “The four visions my mom left me with are: Always do your best, that’s good enough. Never throw away your tomorrows worrying about yesterday. The day you see the truth and cease to speak is the day you begin to die. And, if you want to get out of the cotton patch, you have to get something in your head.’ They have served me well.”
Dr. Joycelyn Elders
Former U.S. Surgeon General
She asked President Clinton if he could deal with her bold mouth. He said yes, and appointed her U.S. Surgeon General. He didn't stand by her long, as she attracted attention for calling telling it like it really was. Now a medical school professor in Arkansas, she’s making the lecture circuit fighting to change attitudes on AIDS and teen pregnancy.
“If we don't stand up and fight for what we believe in, we deserve what we get." |
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 “I expected my politics to be the issue. I’d been involved in many things that would be considered liberal or even radical. I thought those would be the issues. They weren’t. The issue was my being a woman, and I wouldn’t have it. I simply told myself that it was a foolish issue, and I wouldn’t argue with a fool. I ignored it and focused on the real issues. When it would come up and someone would say, ‘You’re a woman, how will that affect your leadership,” I said “Thanks for asking, now let’s talk about health care."
Wilma Mankiller
First Woman Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation
The intimidation, the criticism and the skepticism were brutal, but Wilma Mankiller just ignored it all because there was way too much work to be done. Her work led to better economic and social conditions for her tribe and forever changed the political landscape of the Cherokee Nation. While she fought her way into history books she also battled multiple life-threatening medical conditions -- always bounding bound back even stronger.
She knew she’d have to have political rallies to get her message out, so she staged one and put the word out on the radio and in the newspaper. When her big moment came, five people showed, and three of them were relatives. |
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 “People who are brave are scared. If they aren’t scared, they don’t need to be brave. They usually are facing tough odds. And when you take a risk, you can fail. I don’t care how successful you are. You feel that. I feel that every day. If you are not taking risks, you are not learning anything.”
Aida Alvarez
Led the Small Business Administration
Aida Alvarez muscled the Small Business Administration into being the woman's mentor into the business world. She was a member of Clinton's cabinet and the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic woman in government.
She first learned about leadership when she fought back after a female gang leader tried to bully her. |
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