We were very lucky to attend the inspirational Women in the World Summit hosted by Newsweek and The Daily Beast this past weekend. We heard from women who made us think about our future, moved us to tears in an instant and even made us smile (thank you Madeleine Albright). For those who weren’t there, here are some of our favorite moments.
Watch an excerpt from Hillary Clinton’s passionate speech on why America needs to set an example for women’s rights in the world.
Below are some of our favorite quotes on women and work from the conference.
Qualified Women Dirt
This is what Madeleine Albright said at the conference about the claim by some people that there aren’t enough qualified women: “That’s one of the most bullshit things I’ve heard.” And of women who don’t help one another, she said: “There’s a special place in hell for them.”
–- Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State
Women Investors
“The venture capital firms are hugely underrepresented with women investors. There’s no question. If you are at a company that has only men listening to pitches, they tend to like the pitches that come from men…It’s a real problem for women entrepreneurs to be able to finance a start-up company and it’s important, because this is the area where there’s going to be a lot of wealth creation over the next couple of decades.”
— Susan Lyne, Chairman, Gilt Groupe
Women’s Obstacles
“The challenging thing for my generation is that we were told that we were equal and that there were no more barriers: They had all been broken down by the previous generations. And so, when we go into the workforce and we start doing our work and we hit these barriers, we think it must be our fault, that it’s an individual problem.”
— Shelby Knox, Director of Women’s Rights Organizing, Change.org
‘Pink’ Women Start-ups
“There are millions and millions of women out there who love to shop and who have babies, so why would you not go where the need is? It’s just not logical. I think that you go for what you know, and you go for where you see the white space. ”
— Susan Lyne, Chairman, Gilt Groupe
Women and Flexibility
“If we want more women leaders, we really have to change the expectations around actual time in the office and really put the emphasis on results. Because the reality is, I was up until 4 o’clock in the morning on Saturday writing a paper, but I also took half the day off yesterday to take care of a sick child.”
— Amanda Steinberg, Founder and CEO, DailyWorth
Watch a dynamic discussion on how women are fairing after the ‘great recession.’ Participants included Amanda Steinberg of DailyWorth, Susan Lyne of Gilt Groupe, Candace Browning of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon of the Council on Foreign Relations.