Rana el Kaliouby Quotes

In my career I have never felt that my being a woman was an obstacle or an advantage. I guess I've been oblivious.

I'm always asked about how women get on in the boardroom and my answer is always, 'Never acknowledge that you are a woman. Your gender is not the point.'

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.

I think that issues of gender have been discussed widely at Harvard. But I think I was chosen clearly on the merits, and I wish to operate as president on the merits. I think, on one level, we might say that I can affirm that women have the aptitude to do science or to do anything, including being president of Harvard.

Don't think of yourself as a woman in business.

I know if I was a woman I wouldn't want to be a member of an organization that's mostly men.

I've worked with so few female directors.

It's unexpected for women's issues to be brought up in places other than women's centers on college campuses or crisis places.

I don't want to be regarded as a female pundit. I'm a pundit.

We are in an industry where, unfortunately, there is very limited scope for female-oriented roles. If we don't have options, how can we pick and choose roles?

I spent most of my career in business not saying the word 'woman.' Because if you say the word 'woman' in a business context, and often in a political context, the person on the other side of the table thinks you're about to sue them or ask for special treatment, right?

I didn't want to set up a women's studies program. I thought women should learn to operate in a coeducational atmosphere, because, especially in national security and international affairs, it's male-dominated.

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.

As an agent, I functioned like a guy. But the fact that I was a woman affected everything.

I would not have a woman go to Congress merely because she is a woman.

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 think I happened to work with sort of a bunch of slightly difficult male directors when I was a kid. I've since worked with lots of male directors that I love, so I no longer see the distinction gender-wise.

I hate when I get asked, 'What's it like to be a woman in comics?'

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've never had a problem in a male-dominated sector. Results speak for themselves.

I guess economists, it's a bit like scientists; you have definitely fewer women in that field.

True gender equality in Scotland - and elsewhere - is still some way off.

Politics need to stop treating women as a special-interest group.

Success on the front of women's rights will look like a world not only with obvious advances - where no girl is denied access to education, for instance - but also one with more subtle changes in how we regard gender and gender stereotypes.

I think there is a need to have more women running companies, but you can't... appoint women just to appoint women, just to satisfy a particular condition. What you want more than anything is to develop women in the organisation who will, when they get to the top, be fully capable of delivering and doing the job effectively.