Nikita Thukral Quotes

I have always had a desire to prove people that looked past me wrong, whether it was because I was a female trying to wrestle or fight in MMA or because I grew up on the wrong side of town.

I think, when I was a young lawyer starting out, I was so determined to prove that I was as good as the men and that I could be given the same opportunities as the men, and it wouldn't make any difference at all that I was a woman. But actually, looking back on it now, I did do things that I wouldn't recommend to other women at all.

I'm living proof that you can make it out of the ghetto.

As a young girl, I'm always going to have to work a bit harder to prove myself; that's just reality. But having to work harder makes me feel like girls are stronger, too.

It was definitely harder being a girl in the industry, but sometimes you have to struggle, and you have to work harder to actually enjoy when you start getting the results.

It's hard being a woman in the hip-hop game, but I'm lucky to have good people around me who have had my back.

Funny enough, the most discrimination I've ever gotten as a woman in this industry has been from other women.

There were times when I was down and frustrated being in a male-dominated sport: you don't get the support. It affected me. Layne Beachley helped me beat that. That was the difference for me and helped get me through.

We had so many obstacles. We had a lot of sexism and misogyny, there's a lot of things that were against us. But we've just pushed forward and we showed everybody.

And I would say that the main thing that I faced as a female in this industry was being underestimated. But being underestimated isn't always a bad thing. It's nice to get out there and blow people's minds when they think you're not gonna be any good.

In my personal life I'm not very tough at all, but in my professional life, having to deal with being a woman in a man's world, I'm really tough. I never back down from a fight or an argument. I'm willing to stand there toe to toe with anyone.

For a woman to go out alone into architecture is still very, very hard. It's still a man's world.

I was very much a student of the sport. I wanted to know everything, all the moves. It was the coolest thing I had seen. I started winning matches. Dads didn't want their sons to face a girl. Coaches didn't want to put any of their wrestlers up against me to be beaten by a girl.

My message is don't be discouraged by anything anybody tells you. In my case of the science thing, and I just ignored people who said, 'Oh, girls don't do that.'

That was honestly one of the biggest learnings for us: to stay true to the value we believe our company offers, and to not allow people to undercut us just because we're women.

When you get into this industry and the restrictions placed on women, first, and then on women on color, next? Yeah, this business comes with its challenges. But I do not shy away from those challenges.

I would say the biggest challenge I had as a woman in science is be a mom. It's really hard. It's very hard work having children, and I tell kids this all the time.

My mother raised 14 kids, with little means, from our humble house in Southwest Detroit - and now her daughter, who started school not speaking English, is going to be a congresswoman. It was so important for her to know her strength got me here, and that I'm going to fight every day with her spirit inside me.

To address what seems like an endless cycle of gender inequity in media, I believe we need to think beyond what our industry has already tried to do through mentorships and internships. We need to stop talking and start moving the needle, and one solution is to simply give women jobs.

I was crazy poor, but I was learning and putting myself out there and getting hired to do whatever gig I could and auditioning.

Being in a male-dominated career field as a combat pilot, I got used to kind of blocking out the lies in the attacks that people would levy against me and trying to tell me who I am and define who I am when I know what I'm fighting for.

For me, as a woman in one of the less diverse fields - electrical engineering, which is what I studied in college - it was hard to persist and really build a career. Some of the things I experienced were really scary, and they weren't experiences that I wanted for my daughter.

I'm a mudboy. I came from the mud, oozed out the concrete. I'm not a rose. I'm a mudboy: I came from nothing.

Women simply cannot stay home and get to the top at work.

I have never let gender get in my way.