Lori: Throughout all of our lives and our careers, we've had to show resilience, grit, both
personally and professionally. And so, Sandy, as women, a lot of times we'll put qualifiers in our
language, or we apologize when we're explaining our positions. Why do you think we do that? And
more importantly, how do you think we stop? Sandy: I feel like culturally, I was taught
to be accommodating, and I think probably many women might be able to relate to that.
I think we often apologize to take the heat off of a situation
or course-correct something, even if it might not be our responsibility.
In my own work practice, about 10 years ago, I just stopped apologizing for anything over email
for things because I realized it was starting to become habitual. And every time I started
typing a message that started with some form of sorry, but, or sorry, oh, I'll
get that to you, I just delete and rewrite. Lori: Absolutely. So, Queen, I want to shift this
to especially starting and growing your career. A lot of obstacles, I imagine, in how to earn the
respect of your male peers because clearly, very male-dominated environment. Do you feel like you
have to keep working for that respect? Queen: Absolutely. It's evident every day
that I put my insignia on. I walk into rooms. I walk into stations, so that requires a certain
amount of tenacity. You have to stick to it. You can't accept no for an answer. And what I
try to instill is as women leaders, we have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
Lori: Adrian, what stereotypes have you run into, and how have you been able to crush them?
Adrienne: I have to continue to prove myself every day. I have to make sure I have to walk that line.
I have to make sure that I can't make a mistake because they're watching me.
I have to be better. I have to be the best. Raquel: Sometimes, you can address a person who's,
maybe, talking to you, talking down to you, and you suspect it's because I'm a woman, right? Or
I'm a Latina, so you're talking down to me. And you can address that person and remedy that
situation. But really, it's about building the capacity around that. I'm not going to fight you.
I'm going to go to the organization. I'm going to talk to your board. My favorite phase has been,
"Get in, turn around and knock the door down." And I had a person asked me, "That's such a violent
description." And I also have used the word infiltrate. I'm like, "We're
going to get in." [crosstalk 00:03:05]. Adrienne: Oh, I like that. I like that.
Raquel: Yeah. We're going to get in. We're going to shape policy. Same thing.
Somebody said, "Why the word, infiltrate?" And I said, "Because we haven't been invited."
We will stop infiltrating when we get the invitation. It's not about us. It's not about me.
It's about paving the way, and knocking down those barriers, and being vocal, and being honest about
the things that we've seen and using all the wits we have to dismantle them.
Lori: We have to build this into our systems and our processes so it's not all... It is how things
are done, not versus how I want them to go. So, there's a lot of grit and there's a lot of grace
in this virtual room that is going to do that. And we're going to keep on going.