The Proactive Executive

“As a young female executive, I had to make choices to be a mother and spend time at home. That is why I left general management consulting. I made the right decision to stay professionally engaged as an executive in a more traditional company setting which provided me more flexibility with my time. This may have limited how fast I progressed at the company, but it worked out well. Professional female friends who made a different decision to leave the work force entirely for a period of time found it difficult to re-engage later on. I’m not sure that many of them ever got their careers back on track. I felt that I personally had to keep a toe in the water.”

“As a female executive, I also had my share of unwanted advances by male colleagues. I learned to manage this by having other people present at meetings with these male colleagues, and to not put myself in isolated situations with these male counterparts. The other thing I’ve learned as a female is that meritocracies are great environments for women. You are judged by your abilities and competence.”