Valerie Jarrett Quotes

In 1989, I started the National Association of Business Women. We incorporated microfinance and different job training for women. We did a survey, with USAID, that found women lacked training, credit and information.

The role of business in advancing women's rights is growing, particularly in the area of economic opportunity including opening access to training, mentoring, networks, markets, technology and even to capital in some circumstances.

Closing the gap for women entrepreneurs should be a priority for the federal government - and yet the Small Business Administration has failed in their promise to women business owners.

The term 'glass ceiling' was coined in 1984. More than 20 years later, the ceiling has barely cracked. There isn't a single country in the world that has as many female as male politicians. In business, the situation is even worse. Its highest echelon - the board - remains a chauvinist's dream.

I have seen businesses and government come together to provide women entrepreneurs with the training they need to better access markets, take advantage of trade agreements, and in the process grow businesses, jobs, and GDP. These are partnerships that transform lives.

Paying women equally for comparable work done by men would be the biggest economic stimulus that this country could possibly have … $200 billion dollars into the economy every year and would be way more effective than propping up banks on Wall Street because this money would get spent and not put into Swiss bank accounts.

There is strong mentoring of women in the academy. Corporations appear more willing to resist affirmative action to advance women, and boards and shareholders are more tolerant of this approach.

New York City has finally hired women to pick up the garbage, which makes sense to me, since, as I've discovered, a good bit of being a woman consists of picking up garbage.

It's so hard for women in this business. And I want to be doing this when I'm 50.

Every entrepreneur talks about the passion you have for your work, and I think that's what's missing with a lot of women in business.

The women executives in the film industry have the power to say, 'No,' but few of them have the power to say, 'Yes.'

Women have helped shape our world, yet still do not receive the recognition and compensation they deserve.

I think there's a very clear recognition and understanding that the progress of women in business at the very highest decision-making levels is too slow. This is a discussion that's going on in every country around the world, actually.

It is easier for women to succeed in business, the arts, and politics in America than in Europe.

The battle for women's rights has been largely won.

I think these are very precarious times for women, it seems. So many of your rights are under assault.

The Nordic countries are leading the way on women's equality, recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale.

Today, unless women gain jobs and athletic scholarships commensurate with their percentage of the population, feminists scream discrimination.

I believe women still face a glass ceiling that must be shattered.

Until we know how many women own businesses, we may under-invest in them as entrepreneurs and economic drivers.

I applaud Women in Film - not only for celebrating the successes of women, but for providing a safety network to mentor women and to discuss the particular issues that arise in a very male-dominated industry.

One of the most important tools we have at the Small Business Administration (SBA) to reach high growth entrepreneurs is the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program.

I have worked steadily since I started, but things are very hard for women and need to change.

I wanted to make sure that women made up half of all Grameen's borrowers. But it wasn't easy to persuade the women in Bangladesh to join the bank. A man isn't even allowed to address a woman in her village.

When I first came to Wall Street, not 100 women in the whole of the United States owned stocks or dared to show independence in property ownership. Highest positioned men scowled at any thought of women investment. For a woman to consider a financial question was shuddered over as a profanity.