Arianna Huffington on Women in Business
Planoprofile
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Arianna Huffington’s ex-husband is a Texan, but she doesn’t hold it against us. She has two “half-Texan, half-Greek daughters”, she loves to travel and is a passionate advocate for women in business.
She’s also the founder of the Huffington Post, a Pulitzer prize-winner, an international best-selling author of 15 books and has been named to TIME magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people as well as Forbes Most Powerful Women in Media and Entertainment.
Recently in Plano as a guest speaker for a luncheon hosted by the Collin County Business Alliance (CCBA) at Capital One, Arianna Huffington had some interesting things to say on women in business.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON ON WOMEN IN BUSINESS
There is a problem
“Every year, we look at the latest annual statistics on women in leadership and the numbers aren’t budging. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results—we need to look at what’s the problem here.”
Women are at a disadvantage
“In workplaces that are fueled by burnout, women are at a disadvantage for two reasons: 1. Women still carry the brunt of responsibilities at home. 2. Women internalize stress differently; women in stressful jobs have a 40% greater risk of heart disease and 60% greater risk of diabetes.
Unconscious bias is real
“In workplaces fueled by burnout, mens unconscious biases of sexism come out. It’s not just sexual harrasment, it’s bad behaviour and at some point women just leave. And, they don’t just leave that work place—they leave all workplaces. They stop working.”
Women’s needs are not being met
“We need to encourage women to thrive. If you go to an office and they have room for a ping pong table but they don’t have room for a woman who’s just given birth to pump milk, there’s a problem. It happens a lot.”
“If you go to an office and they have room for a ping pong table but they don’t have room for a woman to pump milk, there’s a problem.”