 Things are much better for women than they used to be when in many fields they were just hardly getting women at all and entry was impossible in many fields. But now we have, you know, proportions of women as executives, as higher level political officials, elected officials, but there's still problems. The question is, what are the solutions that has to do with how we understand the problem? There is a powerful metaphor that's not just in any one country, it's throughout the Western world, which is the glass ceiling, that women's problems is that there's a ceiling up there that's rather impenetrable and that we can't go past it. I think that metaphor is particularly unhelpful because it rather simplifies the problems to a challenge or a solid barrier even at a very high level when actually it's much more complicated and the challenges that women face are not just at some advanced level there at other phases too. Actually, women encounter challenges in their careers that are difficult and different from those that men face at all levels, particularly when women are young, many women choose to have a child or children and to marry and given that responsibilities for caring and domestic work are not usually equally shared, of course that can slow down women's careers and that happens young. So there's the idea that challenges that are at all levels and women are falling out at all career stages. There's also the issue of the invisibility of a glass ceiling. You don't see it, that's part of the metaphor and then women hit their heads on it. It really rather describes a kind of lack of intelligence whereas women who've been in careers for decades, they kind of know how things work and it isn't as if challenges of that sort are unanticipated. You've seen other women have problems, etc. So it's rather unflattering in that sense. And then of course there's that its impenetrability without something awful happening like you cut your head or something as you break the glass. Whereas women have gotten to high positions. I think New Zealand has had two prime ministers who were women, for example. Some women are CEOs in the United States of Fortune 500 companies. It's not many, but hey, the CEO of General Motors is a woman. So women are not inevitably blocked as the metaphor might suggest, but some of them find the way around it. The labyrinth, that's the one I'm promoting. Now a labyrinth has complexity. There's a goal in the center which can be seen as women's career goal, a particular woman's goal. She might want to be CEO. And so you enter a labyrinth and you encounter some challenges, it's good to be alert and to think about them. It's like a puzzle. So it would reward intelligence and analytical qualities. Also in the labyrinth, you might take a wrong term, you're not lost, right? You may have been in some labyrinths. You turn around and you try another route. And the secret really in a labyrinth, you can make mistakes and recoveries, persistence. That is true in careers in a way, in a sense. We all have reverses and challenges. It's days that don't go well. But rather than say, oh, I can't do that, the idea is persistence and thought and analysis. And that there are multiple routes sometimes. So I think it's a more appropriate metaphor that's more hopeful. It doesn't say that everything is equal. In my writing, I say that women don't exactly have a labyrinth, they have a road with a few bumps in it, you know. But it isn't the complexity of the issues that women face. In many countries, dropping out can be a career killer. It shouldn't be. But it slows things way down and often it's impossible for women to get a professional man-dial job again. So that's one part of the data. You're much better off if you can arrange your life to at least stay in part time and stay in touch, stay connected, don't get isolated in the domestic role if you care to have a long-term career that is at a high level. But there's also advice around behavior. And what we find repeatedly in research is that when women are tough and strong, which is take on the masculine repertoire of behaviors, they get what we call backlash. That who's she to do that or to tell me or to order me about or whatever. So there's a lot of backlash demonstrations. Even for taking the floor and talking a lot, it's like, who's she to run on like that? Men run on like that and we think it's okay. So there's the whole backlash component that women need to negotiate. My advice is always push the envelope but watch how people are reacting. So if you say, oh, then I'll be nice and kind and sweet and not talk too much. But that would be perceived as weak and would be a hindrance to rising. So negotiating, we call that the double bind where there are expectations about a woman as a leader, a potential leader to show strong leader-like characteristics and then as a woman to be nice and kind and socially sensitive. So negotiating that is really challenging. And if women aren't aware of those hazards, then they may tend to personalize the reaction. Well, I'm just not a good manager. People aren't liking me, but not to see the gender dynamics. And so in general, research suggests that women in particular do better in a kind of a middle ground where they do take charge, of course, when they have a leadership role. But that they blend that with a fair amount of warmth and consideration, which are wonderful human qualities. So if they move very far out of that middle ground, they can damage their chances. And that is just a gender dynamic. Women don't have to be in that middle ground. We like them if they are. But they don't need to be. They can be tough and tough, ruthless types and do well, and people admire them as heroic leaders. So there are all these pitfalls in terms of everyday behavior in the workplace and studying the gender aspects of it can be very helpful. But yet, in the actual concrete situation, the woman has to figure it out. There's no one solution like smile lots. Sometimes that's not going to work, or say how is the kids or something relational. It would depend then. It takes a lot of creativity, I think, and is a bit of a burden, actually, to be thinking about this as well as thinking about your job. Well, if I could give a single piece of advice to women who are interested in career, in having some impact, in giving back, as many women say, to their communities, in powerful positions, it would be the persistence argument that women need to stay in and strive for these careers despite the fact that they will sometimes get reactions that are quite unfair or they may be misjudged because of stereotyping. So those things happen, but in the labyrinth, of course, you get to turn around and take another route, and if you stay in, you've got a good chance of getting to something that more or less fits your goal. So that's the staying in and remaining hopeful.