Gloria Romero is the author of JUST NOT THAT LIKABLE: The Price All Women Pay for Gender and retired California State Senator and Democratic majority leader of the California State Senate. Rejecting the notion that women should play “nice” and go along to get along, Romero instead urges women to confront and topple gender stereotypes head on. Yet, as she stresses, JUST NOT THAT LIKABLE is not one of those “how to fix this in ten quick steps” books. As she impresses on women, changing the status quo will take courage, commitment, and a lot of hard work.
In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that employers could no longer evaluate employees based on stereotypes. Over the successive decades, unequal pay for equal work has been outlawed and anti-discrimination laws have become common. Still, women in business, politics, and nearly every profession continue to struggle to achieve power and success equal to men. Here are just a few of the sobering statistics:
● 42% of women experience gender discrimination at work;
● Men are 30% more likely to obtain managerial roles than women; ● Women represent a third of MBA graduates, but only 4% of Fortune 500 CEOs;
● Both men and women are twice as likely to hire a male candidate.
Hear Gloria Romero discuss:
● Get over the need to be liked. Being the boss means sometimes being bossy, and if the people complain, who cares?
● Stop victim shaming. A strong, smart, ambitious woman doesn’t need to fix her supposed defects to be accepted by men and succeed.
● Challenge the “likability penalty.” Start by evaluating performance fairly, judging strong, assertive women by the same standards as strong, assertive men.
Eileen Koteles is an actor and choreographer. Raising her three sons, she realized the gift of teaching through the Arts. Now returning to the stage, Eileen performs as Dr. Ruth, an iconic sex therapist who lost her family in the Holocaust.
Jed Mescon is a relationship builder, brand ambassador, dynamic speaker, creative thinker, persuasive communicator, veteran fundraiser, and community advocate. He is well known in Chattanooga having served as the host of the radio talk show Chewin the Chatt and as the morning news anchor for WRCB-TV.
Rudy J. Ortega, Jr. is the Tribal President of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. Rudy steers the continuing efforts of the Tribe’s missions of protecting the rights of Fernandeño Tataviam as Native American people and plays a supportive role with the Tribe’s non-profit, Pukúu Cultural Community Services (Pukúu) to provide community programs to Native Americans living in the Los Angeles County.
Real American Families
Sedruola Maruska is an Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice consultant focused on tapping into the power of individuals to transform companies and industries. Her areas of special interest include: Race & Ethnicity , Gender & Orientation, and Disability.
Ashley Perryman is the VP of Global Human Resources at 
Cat is Vice President, Clinical Transformation, Immunology and Integration Leader at Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Jack Myers
MediaVillage’s mission is to advance advertising supported media industry growth through investments in diversity and education, highlighted by the industry’s first-ever Advancing Diversity Week that took place September 2021, culminating with the 4th annual Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors Induction Experience and inaugural Gen-Z Town Hall Meeting.
As head of automotive and oil, gas and energy staffing at Kelly Professional & Industrial, Vice President