it’s not about you

Despite her hard-won reputation as an astute businesswoman, Ms. Bartz found herself repeatedly skipped over during a recent meeting of business and political leaders in Washington. The reason was that the men at the table assumed that she was an office assistant, not a fellow executive. “Happens all of the time,” Ms. Bartz says dryly, recalling the incident. “Sometimes I stand up. Sometimes I just ignore it.”

Her plans had to be put on hold, however, when she discovered during her first week on the job that she had breast cancer. After undergoing a mastectomy, Ms. Bartz ignored her doctor’s recommendation that she recuperate for six weeks. She did not want to appear fragile or weakened, and she returned to work after four weeks. (Asked about questions tossed her way that a male C.E.O. would never receive, Ms. Bartz said that during a news conference shortly after she disclosed her cancer, a reporter asked, “Which breast?”)

OH MY GOD.

via the New York Times.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Activist, Blogworthy, News and Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.