The Elephant and the Mouse

Acknowledgments

My friend, dynamic businesswoman, and wonderful supporter Adrienne Arsht will say to me as we end a phone call or after a delightful dinner, “To be continued.” This is how I feel about the journey that I have been on for diversity, equity, inclusion, and women's empowerment. The arc of my career always returns to these personal and professional passions.

It has been 10 years since I wrote The Loudest Duck, and to rephrase a French saying, the more things change, the more they stay the same. I celebrate the great progress that has been made in our diverse world. The fact that there is more call for wanting real change is heartening. When I was in college, I could not even think to be considered for a Rhodes scholarship or be admitted into a military academy. I probably would not have attained either of those goals, but the choice was not mine to seek. Today, young, talented, ambitious women can do so, and they know the contributions they can make.

However, the fact that less change has been made than many of us hoped falls into the “to be continued” category. In the book, I quote from the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report. The gap continues and the date of its demise stretches further and further away. I want to acknowledge Saadia Zahidi, a managing director of the Forum, for her tireless work on gender and for making a global meeting place like Davos much more reflective of the achievements of women and others not automatically included. She ensures ...