Condoleezza Rice needs little introduction.
The former Secretary of State, the first African American woman to hold that post, was also America’s first female National Security Advisor.
Little known fact: This 57 year-old Soviet foreign policy specialist was a competitive ice-skater and a piano prodigy, as a child.
(Click here to read her exclusive profile!)
Rice was raised in segregated Alabama, where African Americans could legally be denied service in restaurants and movie theaters. Through education and determination, the girl who couldn’t get a hamburger at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, became the top woman in the American government.
Here, she tells Little PINK Book what it takes to succeed, why women need to be twice as good, and what she would do if she had one wave of a magic wand.
Little PINK Book: Was it tough to be a woman in a majority-male office?
Condoleezza Rice: If by the time you’re Secretary of State, you let somebody treat you badly because you’re a woman, it’s your fault – not theirs. You’ve got plenty of arrows in your quiver. If you are willing to let somebody degrade you, or not take your advice seriously, or treat you badly because you’re a woman – oh come on! It’s time women who have reached that position in life realize they don’t have to be taken care of. They need to take care of themselves!
LPB: Why are you so passionate about women’s advancement?
CR: If I could wave one wand, I would empower women. If you want to do something about population explosion, empower women and they will not have their first child at 13, and they won’t have 10 of them. If you want to do something about human trafficking, empower women and they won’t end up in brothels. Women’s empowerment is not just a nice thing to do, but a necessity of good foreign policy.
Minute Mentor: Watch Condoleezza Rice’s top tips on how to recover from mistakes.
By Ruchika Tulshyan
“If you’ve worked hard enough to believe you are twice as good, then you are not going to be thrown off course by almost anything.”
Condoleezza Rice
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