To the Top

Introduction: A Post‐Pandemic World

A few times a year, I am asked to talk to MBA students at leading business schools around the country about how to manage their careers. In 2022, I was speaking to a group of undergraduate students at a leading school, and at the end of the session we held a Q&A. In addition to their intelligence, savviness, maturity, and poise, what really stood out to me was that many of the women students asked me essentially the same questions:

• “How can I make my voice heard – and make it to the top?”
• “How should I negotiate my compensation, even when it feels awkward?”
• “How many boxes do I need to check before starting my own company?”
• “Is it really possible to have both a career and a family?”

These were some of the brightest and most accomplished women from all around the world, and yet the undertones of their questions made me realize – at the age of 21 – that they were already looking down the barrel towards their futures and questioning whether they could “have it all,” whether they could succeed when they looked at how few women were at the top table today, and when they had seen so many talented women permanently step out of the labor force.

After everything that women have accomplished and the myriad ways in which things are so much better for us than they were only a generation ago, we still have some of the most talented and fiercest women questioning if they can rise to the highest ranks within corporations. It struck me that businesses ...