Maria Konnikova Quotes

It gets frustrating when my male counterparts are questioned about their game or performance, whereas I am fielding questions on gender stereotypes and my ability to stay committed to the game on account of my gender.

People put stock in someone being in a 'girl group,' but we don't say that a band is a 'man group.'

If a woman gets tough in negotiations, she's difficult, whereas a man would be considered a brilliant businessman.

A woman who places a high priority on performance and excellence is seen as imperial. A man is seen as demanding and tough.

She is a great man whose only flaw is that she is a woman.

I used to be very interested in the history of women's rights in this country and in other countries. I tried to learn as much as I could about it, and more than anything, I would be called gay. It was phenomenal. But if a boy has something to say, he is appreciated; he's even popular. If a girl says something, it's instantly a threat.

Years ago, I worked in a newspaper office, and there were men that would have fits of temper, and it was just accepted that that's who they were, and everyone would laugh about it, but if a woman got upset or angry, something wasn't right: she was 'hysterical' or 'a little unhinged.' It didn't have the same sort of connotation at all.

If a woman is successful, then she's deemed to be the exception that proves the rule. If a woman fails, well, we're all failures. That kind of underlying approach to our gender doesn't seem to me to have changed an iota.

Our discomfort with female leadership runs deep. We call little girls bossy. We never really call little boys bossy, because a boy is expected to lead, so it doesn't surprise or offend.

As actors, we don't shy away from saying, 'I wanted to be an actor because I wanted to meet girls.' Directors cannot say the same thing.

If you talk to a woman, she will give you at least five incidents in a day, 5-10 in a month, where she had to work harder to prove herself because she is a 'woman,' maybe at a male-dominated work place or when she has to come across as a smarter woman if she is good-looking.

There's still a narrower band of acceptable behavior for women than men.

There is part of you as a female - no question - that feels like you have to be overprepared and outwork the men because people are automatically going to look at you and say, 'Well, you didn't play football,' or, 'You don't know what you're talking about,' because you are a female.

A man is commanding - a woman is demanding. A man is forceful - a woman is pushy. A man is uncompromising - a woman is a ball-breaker. A man is a perfectionist - a woman's a pain in the ass. He's assertive - she's aggressive. He strategizes - she manipulates. He shows leadership - she's controlling. He's committed - she's obsessed. He's persevering - she's relentless. He sticks to his guns - she's stubborn. If a man wants to get it right, he's looked up to and respected. If a woman wants to get it right, she's difficult and impossible.

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.

What works for a man, still does not work for a woman - both in terms of how they see themselves and how we see them.

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.

Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?

Basically, women have to prove they are strong at all times. And then when they go on the attack, they have to not appear mean because those women often get the label of being catty.

We often hear of a male director directing a great indie and immediately being offered the next huge comic book movie. Rarely, if ever, does this happen to a woman.

Whenever anything went wrong at home, because I was the only boy, I would get blamed for it straight away. Girls stick together.

'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

If it's a woman, it's caustic; if it's a man, it's authoritative.

There are some professions that culturally and sociologically take a long time to change, and because of that, there's still sexism in comedy audiences. We shouldn't blame them: I do it too. A woman comes on, and I feel slightly anxious. I'm a woman in comedy, and I do that; I think everyone does.

You think once you've shown what you can do, and your movies have been successful, that snap, you work. So to discover the difference between guys' roles and girls' roles made me plain mad. It's unjust.