It could very well have been billed the Condi and Indra show or vice versa.
Two of the most powerful women in the world, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi in conversation at the Women's Conference 2008 in Long Beach, California on October 22, hosted by California's First Lady Maria Shriver, where 14,000 women in attendance seemed to hang on to every word uttered by these two icons in diplomacy and business, on leadership to legacy to life.
While Rice, asked by moderator Campbell Brown if there's still a glass ceiling for women, said, "It's getting much, much thinner these days," Nooyi said, "There is a glass ceiling, but it's glass, and glass means you can see through it and you can break through it."
"But it's not easy," she said. "And, the reason it's not easy is because the people who are going to help you break through that glass ceiling, at least in my life, have all been men."
Nooyi said the glass ceiling would only go away "when women help other women break through that glass ceiling. That's what is really going to make a difference.
"When a man presents at a meeting with all men and if he messes up, the men sort of go to the men's room with him and say, you know what, you could have done a better job. There's a locker room conversation that happens automatically. It's almost in their genes."
"(But) When women do the same thing and they don't do such a good job, two things happen. First, the women don't pull them aside and say, hey, you could have done a better job. Second, even if they do that, it's viewed as 'she probably doesn't like me.' So, it's a bit of both."
Asked to expand on that as to why it happens by Brown, Nooyi said, "I don't know. I think that all of us women have to learn to trust other women a lot more. I'm not sure we are there. I think we tend to trust men more than we trust each other. And we have to figure out what it is about us that we feel that advice -- constructive advice from a woman is viewed a little bit negatively than the same thing coming from a man. I've never been able to figure it out, but I think we've got to get to the root of that issue at some point."
On the question of choices, tradeoff, and sacrifices, Nooyi said, "Any woman who reaches the kinds of positions we do, and I'll speak for myself here, there are so many tradeoffs, compromises, heartbreaks, regrets that we've had to make along the way. It has not been easy. You know, I have two daughters. I have a husband, been married for 28 years. I have a mother still alive, and my family is very close."
"To get to where I am today, first of all, if you go to where I started in life and where I am today, the two points don't connect," she said. "So the fact that I'm here means that along the way there were many choices that I had to make -- leaving India was a big choice, a scary choice. Nobody in my family had ever left the country before, and I left the country. It was a big choice. Deciding to stay here was a big decision because it was leaving the cocoon of my family. But the real regret that you have is about your kids, because they grew up."
When asked by Brown to give their perspective on the role women have played in this election cycle and what it bodes for the future in terms of women and their role in politics more generally, Nooyi said, "I thought Hillary Clinton was an amazing candidate and she inspired all of us. And, this is not a partisan statement.
"I'm saying that because our company is headquartered in New York, I've had a chance to meet Hillary Clinton. She's been by our offices. I have yet to meet somebody more brilliant than her in this campaign. So she was an amazing lady, completely blew me away."
Nooyi then said to laughter and applause, "I'll let Condi talk about Sarah Palin."
But Rice, ever the diplomat, said, "What we're seeing is that it's no longer going to be a novelty to see women in these positions. That's what's going to happen. In four years or eight years, if there's a woman on the ticket, at the top of the ticket or second on the ticket, it's not going to be a novelty anymore. Because what you are seeing is women moving into the positions, the pool, if you will, from which we recruit vice presidential and presidential candidates."
Nooyi then exclaimed, to applause, "I say, Condi for President."
Reportage: Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC
Image: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi share a light moment at the 2008 Women's Conference in Long Beach, California, on October 22, 2008.
Photograph: Michael Buckner/Getty Images
