Cracks reported in glass ceiling
"The glass ceiling is there. It's absolutely there," said Roberts, the keynote speaker at the 30th annual Women & Business Conference, hosted by the Salt Lake Chamber.
But, Roberts said, "You see it changing before your eyes. When I started off, I was always the only woman in the room, and that's just simply not the case today. Most of the time."
Women always have played a critical role in the growth of the nation, Roberts said, from Martha Washington to Abigail Adams to Elizabeth Freeman.
Today, that cause has been taken up by the likes of Utahn Marilyn Tang, owner of Certified Handling Systems.
Tang, the chamber's 2006 Athena Award winner, is believed to be the first woman to own a business in the industrial field of materials handling and storage equipment in the United States.
"I was raised to believe that you could be and do anything if you just went for it," Tang said in a jubilant acceptance speech. "After I started in business, it never occurred to me that I wouldn't be a success. There were some tough times, but we kept the companies going. I've stuck my neck out all my personal life and in my business."
To young women, Roberts offered this advice: Get a good education and take a job in the field of your choosing, even if it's not glamorous work. And then work. Work hard.
"But you know, working harder and being smarter than the guys," she said, "it's not that hard."
That's not to say it's easy, either. There are challenges — balancing work and family, for example. In addition to intelligence and hard work, she said, success takes courage and boldness and a willingness to take risks.
In other words: multitasking. But if there's anyone suited to that particular art, Roberts said, it's women.
"Multitasking is just a made-up 'guy' word to describe what women have been doing since time immemorial," she said.
Which can make women an asset in the workplace.
"Women have different life experiences from men," Roberts said. "I think it's good in any organization to have all of these life experiences at the table."
The final ceiling for women is in leadership roles, Roberts said, where decisions are made and power wielded. But women are changing that in both business and politics, she said, pointing to Nancy Pelosi, speaker-to-be of the U.S. House of Representatives.
You can be the first to comment on this story.