Deborah Tannen Quotes

Being a woman in a male-dominated industry, you are so afraid of people thinking you are weak.

Architecture is particularly difficult for women; there's no reason for it to be. I don't want to blame men or society, but I think it was for a long time, the clients were men, the building industry is all male.

The sexism in Hollywood is not particularly overt - because the system is good at hiding it.

There's something wrong with the Labour party. There's something wrong with the fact that women never rise to the top.

When you work in film sets, when you're working on projects that are male dominated, you are always treated as the last priority.

Women have to work much harder to make it in this world. It really pisses me off that women don't get the same opportunities as men do, or money for that matter. Because lets face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define our values and to define what's sexy and what's feminine and that's bullshit. At the end of the day, it's not about equal rights, it's about how we think. We have to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves.

The old boy network is still very strong and very true. Just look at the stock exchange and how many men and women are there. It is still very much run by men.

It is still more likely that a woman's power would be seen as aggression, and a man's power would be seen as assertion.

Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.

Male supremacy is fused into the language, so that every sentence both heralds and affirms it.

Women are not making it to the top of any profession in the world. But when I say, 'The blunt truth is that men run the world,' people say, 'Really?' That, to me, is the problem.

Patriarchy is a fundamental imbalance underlying society And it's one we rarely address because it's so universal. But as I get older, I see that peace is a product of balance.

When women are in positions of power it's a hard place to be, especially when that position involves bossing men around.

The male sex still constitute in many ways the most obstinate vested interest one can find.

Periodically, 'The New York Times' runs a business news story lamenting how few women still make it to the top in the Wall Street boys' club. Could it be that women are choosing to be conscientious objectors in these wars of one against all?

The failure of women to have reached positions of leadership has been due in large part to social and professional discrimination.

I'm in a male-dominated industry.

Women have the feeling that since they didn't make the rules, the rules have nothing to do with them.

The implications of likability are long-lasting and serious. Women adjust their behavior to be likable and as a result have less power in the world. And this desire to be liked and accepted goes beyond the boardroom - it's an issue that comes up for women in their personal lives as well, especially as they become more opinionated and outspoken.

[Concerning] the promotion of women. The system was designed by men and I am told constantly that "we have no women who are ready yet " for promotion. I can break that through perseverance—but it is an example of the system frustrating our purposes rather than serving them.

The legal profession has been built by men for men in a man’s world. Women find it distinctly uncomfortable.

One of the major differences between gender discrimination and Racial or Religious Discrimination is that the with the latter the perpetrators fundamentally recognized that it was based on power offered moral challenges. However, men—the perpetrators of discrimination against women have mostly not even considered the moral aspect of it and perceived it as natural.

It's not easy casting the men. You have to go gingerly, but you have to approach the right man at the right time because men don't want to play second fiddle to a woman. That's the truth.

There was really quite a remarkable level of sexism on newspapers when I started.

I love how when I say the world is still run by men, and sometimes I say the world is still run by white men, people gasp as if that's news. That's not news. That's obvious.