Randi Zuckerberg: The Art of Being A Woman in 2018
It always astonishes me when I walk out of an interview with a question that drives deeper into me than the questions I came in with.
In this case: How could you not know this stuff, Cal?
That’s exactly what it felt like when I exited my conversation with Randi Zuckerberg on her birthday.
Much of the conversation with the best-selling author centered around what it’s like to be female during these changing times.
We’ve had the Hollywood scandals, the #MeToo movement and marches all over the country that have activated millions of frustrated and angry women.
In a sense, Randi was on to the possibility of these changes years ago, when she showed the force of what can happen when storytelling connects with social media in her best-selling book: Dot Complicated.
All you have to do is turn to page 66 and read about an unemployed engineer in Colombia who started a Facebook page against a terrorist group that led to millions of people marching in the streets.
I read the newspapers. I watch the news. I get the big picture here. Randi’s experience with the vulgar guy sitting next to her on an Alaskan Airline flight a few months back illuminates part of the problem and demands that we think about ways to react when it’s in front of us.
But what surprised me were the everyday subtleties that women must deal with.
I had no idea that it might be helpful for a woman to have a name that could be confused for a male name – like Randi – when she walks into a job interview.
Or that Randi has been halted from boarding when the airline’s top-tiered passengers were called because she didn’t look like a top-tiered passenger -- even though she travels a hundred days a year.
Made me realize I have to speak with more and more women to understand the full picture of what’s going on. I’m on a mission to do just that.
Like the birthday cake that was shared at the offices of Jonesworks in New York, our conversation kept offering new discoveries.
Randi also left me with some tips on life balance coming from her new book that will be published in May: Pick Three.
She’s done a lot of research on the subject. And I slept a lot better after I pre-ordered it on Amazon.
I hope that this conversation is an awakening for a lot of people. Thanks for coming along on the journey.
Cheers,
Cal
