Adam Grant Quotes

There’s no more despised figure on earth than a woman who seeks power.

I don't know if I have any particular views about women in positions of power, though I do think it's more difficult for women, particularly in a Medieval setting. They have the additional problem that they're a woman and people don't want them in a position of power in an essentially patriarchal society.

Women with money and women in power are two uncomfortable ideas in our society.

We are still uneasy with women and power…For a man to be ruthless, he has to be like Joe McCarthy. For a woman, she just has to put somebody on hold.

People are not happy with women in actual power, yet we seem to be happy to take women on as figureheads, objects, like queens. It's a powerful yet politically powerless role.

Nothing bad happens when women are in positions of power.

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.

Is there discrimination against women? Yes. There's no denying that the old boys' network is alive and well. But there's also discrimination against men.

Ironically, women who acquire power are more likely to be criticized for it than are the men who have always had it.

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

I don't have a steady relationship. That's something that women in politics deal with. For some reason, men in politics seem to have a larger charisma, and women drop around their feet. I haven't noticed that so much for me.

However muted its present appearance may be, sexual dominion obtains nevertheless as perhaps the most pervasive ideology of our culture and provides its most fundamental concept of power.

Hollywood is a very strong machine that needs, and in... especially with female actors, fresh flesh. It's that cruel. But that's the way it is.

As we get used to women in power, we are likely to discover that they behave much like powerful men - vain, entitled, always looking for more.

Men are of no importance. What counts is who commands.

Directors didn't want to work with me because I was 'too controlling.' If it had been a man, it wouldn't have meant a damn thing.

They will always assume that this guy - an upcoming actor, what if he becomes a star tomorrow? He would not work with me then... so I might as well choose to be nice. But women are not treated with the same attitude. Women they treat really badly.

Women in Washington - and in positions of power anywhere - should be subjected to the same criticisms and held to the same standards as men. That does not include the assumption that any successful woman has attained her position through flattery, feminine wiles, or her ability to provide maternal comfort to a more powerful man.

There are hierarchies in B-Town regarding many things, not just gender. Men also go through a lot in this industry.

As a woman, sometimes when I am in discussion with a director or producer, there is some kind of a different politics happening. Basically, 'I know more than you'. I am always on the lookout for that. I don't want to get sucked into that. I am very quick to respond to that.

Obviously, I don't want to minimize the patriarchal nature of our media, our government and our culture as a whole. But I think it's our refusal as women to own our power that is our biggest problem, both individually and collectively. The linchpin that holds the current system in place is the slumber of women.

The same men who are blind and deaf to feminism are acutely sensitive to what threatens their dominance and privilege.

Part of the reason images of women in positions of authority are marked by their gender is that the very notion of authority is associated with maleness.

To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature; contumely to God, a thing most contrary to his revealed will and approved ordinance; and finally, it is the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice.

After Nancy Pelosi became Speaker, we were told, 'She's the first female speaker of the House, so whether we like it or not, we've got to handle this with kid gloves. Don't go after Speaker Pelosi. You can go after other people, but you'll be branded as mean and evil if you go after the first female Speaker of the House.'