Sun Tzu's Art of War for Women. Catherine Huang

careers, is where women are faced with greater obstacles—call them complications—than their male counterparts.

       Recognizing

      It is no secret to women that sexism is an ugly social and career obstacle to women here on planet Earth. In the U.S. and most developed nations, sexual discrimination is illegal but in full regalia; in many other places it remains the status quo.

      Back in the 17th century, poet George Herbert wrote: “Words are women, deeds are men” (this from a man of letters). Two centuries later, Mathew Arnold wrote: “With women the heart argues, not the mind.” Haven’t attitudes like these finally disappeared? Not entirely. Given the sensitivity of our society and working environments today, sexist sentiments are voiced far less freely than ever before, but regardless of what is said or not said, women continue to battle for equal pay, equal opportunity for advancement, and the sort of assignments that will challenge them and allow them to prove their value in the workplace. The reasons for this are many, including outmoded ideas of what women can offer. What many men have yet to realize is that women like Catherine the Great, Joan of Arc, Margaret Mead, Golda Meir, Marie Curie, Indira Gandhi, Chien-Shiung Wu, Mother Teresa and Benazir Bhutto (to skim the surface) are not the exception that proves the rule.

      In the 20th century, Marianne Williamson—author, lecturer and minister—wrote in A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?”