Professional Obstacles Quotes

I know that's a vague answer, but you just have to really pedal yourself around town and attempt to not get too discouraged. There is also a different kind of challenge for women, as they graduate into their 30s. It's hard. There isn't as much work. You're suddenly the aunt, or something. So, it's a process.

It's very difficult to be a woman in any industry.

At the end of the day, I'm still an African-American woman in a male-dominated industry, so sometimes you have to deal with people not taking your ideas seriously. But I look at it as, I'd rather have adversities in something that I love than doing something that I hate or where I am not interested.

'American Idol' has done a great job of defaming my name and throwing a lot of mud at me for the past two years, so that set up a lot of roadblocks for me.

Trust me, it has been anything but easy to make it as an actor.

Believe me, it's not easy being an actress and a producer, especially with no big daddy to support you.

In modeling, my height was a big challenge to overcome, because I was pretty much the shortest girl on the runway whenever I was doing the catwalk. The clothes didn't fit and the shoes didn't fit. It was an issue, but luckily, it didn't prevent me from working.

I've gotten resistance for my entire career.

I have spent a great deal of my time defending my work against those who see it as too complicated, too old in approach, too bleak to qualify as children's literature. This has been the bane of my life.

You can say I'm not the easiest architect in the world, because I'm always trying to push the limits.

There's obviously instances where I perceive sexism in my job. ... I think that the sort of sexism that I see has been one that's a little bit like a gentler form of sexism, but still a little bit debilitating, which is that when, as a producer and a writer, whether it was at The Office or [at The Mindy Project], if I make a decision, it'll still seem like it's up for debate.

The biggest obstacle I've had to overcome is being a woman in a man's world.

I write a little bit about what it's like to be a female boss in my book [ Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?] and the things I've noticed about that, but by and large, it's just a tough job in general.

Working overseas is more difficult in that it's much more complicated to get people to open their hearts to you and to tell you information.

We end up with the contradictory picture of a society that appears to throw its doors wide open to women, but translates her every step towards success as having been damaging.

I'm just saying that being in this business is not easy, and it's definitely not for everybody.

At Columbia Law School, my professor of constitutional law and federal courts, Gerald Gunther, was determined to place me in a federal court clerkship, despite what was then viewed as a grave impediment: On graduation, I was the mother of a 4-year-old child.

I think it's hard for women to be directors, particularly in the feature world because, biologically, your peak career-making years are also your peak baby-making years, and that's just the truth. And those are choices women have to make.

I'm still a woman of color in this business and there are times when you still have to walk through extra doors and have extra things to prove.

You've got to keep pushing, keep driving, because in this business, you're going to hear 'no' a lot more than you hear 'yes.'

As a female I think it's a terrible hindrance in business. I think it's a terrible hindrance for any female to have a lot of intelligence in private life, but I think in business sometimes it's even worse because there's deep resentment.

I see much less of an ambition gap and much more of a workplace and society that isn't allowing us to use the talent that is multiplied well beyond this room ... There are millions of women out there who ... need more than, Honey, you can do it if you try hard enough.

When I first came along in the business, they didn't really like the idea of my name being Raquel.

Even though my family was accepting of an unusual career, cinema, my journey in it has still been a tough one.

Film and television were out. I was 24, and it went on until I was 36. For an actor, those are your years. I got a great urgency and education during the blacklist, and it made me grow up in a way I never could have before, and in very good ways, too.