Lifestyle

Hillary Clinton Gives Women And Girls Great Advice For Succeeding In This World

by Katie Gonzalez

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is kind of the authority when it comes to everything related to women and girl's rights in the workplace.

After all, the lawyer turned First Lady turned Senator turned presidential candidate turned Secretary of State is totally the expert on how to make it in a man's world.

She was at the Women in the World Conference in New York last night and sat down with a fellow female power player, International Monetary Fund Chief Christine Lagarde, to answer a slew of questions about gender equality, the double standards that still exist, and how women can translate their ambition into professional success.

On double standards for women (the existence of which, Clinton said, isn't even a question), she urged women to talk about them with both men and women in their lives.

"...Help men and women recognize when they are crossing over from an individual judgement… into a stereotype. Into applying some kind of gender based characterization of the person. The double standard is alive and well, and I think in many respects the media is the principal propagator of it’s persistence."

Clinton also gave women plenty of advice for how to combat sexism inside the work place:

"I always say that you have to play both an outside and inside game. On the outside, you have to find ways to raise these issues that are truly rooted in sexism or old-fashioned irrelevant expectations of women’s lives. Not just to score a point, but to change a mind. "I’ve often been the only woman in a room, and have had the experience of talking about women’s issues and seeing eyes glaze over and the mind[s] wandering...You have to think of ways to keep focus on what it is we are trying to convince the other person—predominately a man—to believe."

As for succeeding at work, Clinton told young women to take criticism seriously and constructively, not personally.

"You have to be resilient to keep moving forward despite whatever the personal setbacks and even insults that come your way might be. That takes a sense of humor about yourself and others, believe me this hard-won advice. But it is a process. "You need other women, you need your friends to support you, and you need male friends as well as female ones. You need good role models all of that is true. But at the end of the day, you really have to be good if you have high aspirations. You need to be well-educated, prepared, and willing to take your chances when they come your way."

The list of inspirational Hillary Clinton quotes could continue to fill the page, but Clinton herself wants women to stop with all the questioning and "hesitancy," and to get out there and do things instead.

via Time, Photo Credit: WENN