Nell Scovell Quotes

We've heard the excuses from those responsible for hiring that they don't want to take a chance on a new director. But the truth is that the industry hires new directors all the time; it's just that most of them are white males.

The problem... is emblematic of what hasn't changed during the equal opportunity revolution of the last 20 years. Doors opened; opportunities evolved. Law, institutions, corporations moved forward. But many minds did not.

When I was growing up, I was told you could be anything you want to be, but I didn't really believe that because you couldn't be president. Like, I knew that; we never had a black president.

We have been suckered into believing that, because there are more men at the top than women at the top, that this is a result of discrimination against women. That's been the misconception. It's all about trade-offs. You earn more money, you usually sacrifice something at home.

I'm always excited when I make it on anyone's list - even if it's for affirmative action. My attitude is, 'Am I the token woman on this list? Because I'll take it.'

Men still get a lot more opportunity. It is still a big part of the old boy network. They have more companies they can get money from.

I have a theory that self-made, first-generation actresses don't feel entitled to success.

Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? … Was it because our predecessors were thick? Does anybody really think that they didn't get what we had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment? Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand.

[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.

I've been asked about the glass ceiling a lot, and I don't think of myself as some kind of crusader going around smashing glass. I don't feel like I had to - and that is a very, very strong flag showing the people around me made it, so I didn't have to.

I think it's worth putting energy into affirmative action in terms of having diversity in positions of power because the door was shut for so long.

As F1 is a male-dominated environment, you have to prove yourself. And first of all that means being given the chance to prove yourself.

The problem in business isn't that women are overlooked because they are women, it's that most people subconsciously look to employ a mini-me. It's not a gender issue, it's about diversification full stop. It's hard to change that mindset and it hits women particularly hard because men historically have always been the recruiters.

Unfortunately, oftentimes people hire and give opportunities to people that look like them. They don't realize how much their own internal lives or privilege gets in the way of looking for people outside of the traditional spaces where they always find people.

America is not another word for Opportunity to all her sons.

The world is not a meritocracy, as much as we may like to pretend that it is. And we have a long way to go before we really reward people based on their own merit.

The sprinkling of people of color through elite institutions in the United States, due to affirmative action policies and the limited progress of middle-class and upper-middle-class African Americans, creates the illusion of great progress.

The concern was that if a woman was doing gender equality, her chances of making it to tenure in the law school were diminished. It was considered frivolous.

I know our country can remain forward-thinking by ensuring young women and minorities are given equal opportunity.

If a firm hasn't hired a single female partner in its history, I don't think it will finally happen by accident.

If you're a white male growing up in this society, you're constantly receiving encouragement to go on in science in the form of all the images that you're receiving.

I believe that the sport of football has set itself up to be in a position where it shows itself in the bigger picture to not really care about women - they don't really care about people of color, but we won't get into that for NFL either - but as a woman I feel like a person who has been marginalized.

I was doing a lot of networking in the Valley, and I found that it was not a very diverse environment, and most of the conferences and meetup events I went to, there weren't many women or people of color in those rooms.

I think it's embarrassing for our industry that we have such low diversity across senior-level management at all of the mainstream, top-tier venture capital firms.

My experience as a black woman in the industry is simply that often I was the only one in the room. Often I would be the only woman and the only person of color. Sometimes I would be one of several women but the only person of color. Sometimes I would be one of several people of color, but the only woman.