Jenny Shipley Quotes

Almost without exception, the talented women I have known have believed they had less ability than they actually had. And almost without exception, the talented men I have known believed they had more.

Research shows that women at that mid level tend to get promoted based on performance, and men tend to get promoted based on potential.

Women, whatever their profession, tend to have a harder time feeling ready for a job, even though in most cases they are more than prepared.

One of my passions is women in business and helping women to get ahead in business. For women, that feedback loop can be broken. Women won't get as much feedback from male bosses as men will get. Therefore, they have to make an extra effort, whether that is unfortunate, good, bad, indifferent.

When women apply for a job, we ask ourselves, 'Am I qualified? Do I have the experience? Do I have the education? Do I have the abilities?' When a man looks at that job, he thinks, 'How much does it pay?' We need to stop second-guessing our abilities. We need to stand up and make ourselves heard.

I don't think of being a woman in an industry of men. I didn't walk into the kitchen and go, 'Ooh, I'm a girl!' I didn't get into my chosen profession. I wanted to be good at something.

I've always said that I didn't want to be given a job because I was a female, I wanted it because I was the most well-qualified person for the job. And making certain that companies are going to move forward in that vein, that is what women want.

Under-representation of women and other inequality among researchers is a problem that will not solve itself as women acquire competence.

The hardest thing in my industry is longevity, getting your next job. It's hard to get the first job, but it's so much harder to get the sixth or seventh as a woman.

Even before I went to the UN, I often would want to say something in a meeting - only woman at the table - and I'd think, 'OK well, I don't think I'll say that. It may sound stupid.' And then some man says it, and everybody thinks it's completely brilliant, and you are so mad at yourself for not saying something.

Women don't take enough risks. Men are just 'foot on the gas pedal.' We're not going to close the achievement gap until we close the ambition gap.

More women than men graduate in media studies. They don't know how to find a fixer; they don't know about weaponry; they don't know where is safe, where is not safe - they just want to prove themselves.

I was so intent as a young lawyer on beating the men at their own game that I didn't take any real maternity leave with my three younger children. It is only looking back that I realise I wasn't beating the system but reinforcing it.

We have a world minus a whole lot of talent that has stepped out of contention for leadership, only because they don't want to seem too aggressive, too smart, unattractive, or too male.

I'd never had a mentor in Hollywood. Men have always been in control of the business, and they usually mentor people who are like them - but two inches shorter.

I've become aware of being in a very male-dominated industry where a door opens and it's like, 'Oh hello, it's 12 men and me. Again.'

What I see around the management team meetings and the conference tables I sit at is that there isn't that same comfort level in other women who are rising the ranks. And I don't know how to fix that.

Obviously it's true that as you go up the ranks, the number of women starts to decline. Whether that's because of 'self-deselection' or other barriers, I think that depends on the firm, the industry, and the person.

I'm an electrical engineer, and when I first started out, there was nobody who looked like me out there. I worked at Qualcomm, and I remember coming into meeting rooms, and I could never get the floor. I could never get my opinion across.

When I think back to the early years of my career, I wish I would have been less tolerant of the norms of that time. Compared to today's generation, my generation didn't call attention to unfair practices like equal pay and promotion tracks as often.

I'm pretty happy with my career. I just know what I'm capable of.

I know in the business world, some women won't speak if there are men in meetings for fear of being seen as too assertive.

I'm probably a little bit of an outlier for women because I don't believe that you have to self-promote to get where you're going.

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.

In our performance reviews with women, we need to be saying, "Are you reaching enough? Are you applying for jobs when you meet some of the criteria like men, or are you waiting to meet all the criteria like women do?" There's so much we can do to encourage women to take on more and believe in themselves.