Dear Raymond, Women Are Making It Happen on Their Own

The proverbial glass ceiling still exists, despite the advances of women around the world. Job segregation runs rampant, and old-boy networking still runs strong.
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"No, I think the WTA - you know, in my next life when I come back I want to be someone in the WTA, because they ride on the coattails of the men. They don't make any decisions and they are lucky. They are very, very lucky."

"If I was a lady player, I'd go down every night on my knees and thank god that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport. They really have." Those are the words of Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore.

Needless to say following a social media backlash, inclusive of responses from tennis greats Serena Williams and Billy Jean King, Moore issued a hurried apology on his "extremely poor taste and erroneous" comments.

Unfortunately, the damage has already been done and his limited thinking has been exposed. What some people fail to realize is that you can't cut down to the "white meat" and then expect a simple apology to heal the wound.

It is this mindset and behaviors that typically accompany it, that impedes so many women from propelling to their greatest levels of success. The proverbial glass ceiling still exists, despite the advances of women around the world. Job segregation runs rampant, and old-boy networking still runs strong. It saddens and infuriates me to think, that there are still segments of our population that assume women are excelling, only because of our association with and assistance from men.

For working mothers, the challenge to overcome that perception in my opinion is even greater. It is largely the reason so many of them have succumbed to believing that their ability to successfully follow their dreams comes only upon achieving empty nester status, if at all. It is also one of the reasons why the number of women entrepreneurs is on the rise. As a Mom Life Coach and Strategist, and CEO of Jacqueline DuJour Enterprises, I live by my tagline - "Motherhood is not where dreams go to die."

Women and those who are moms are making it happen every day. One of the most encouraging comments comes from an article that I read recently - "Welcome to the new age of the woman entrepreneur, where successful women leaders are embracing their gender differences by creating female-inspired products and services, with companies led by moms and funded by empowering sisters. Men aren't out of the picture, but they're no longer defining the parameters."

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