One of the themes of the musical Wicked is brains, heart, and courage. Day 2 of Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit featured all three.
The day wrapped with a stirring performance by Lauren Samuels, an actor and singer playing the role of “Elphaba” in Wicked's North American Tour. MPW attendees followed the musical performance with sumptuous fare prepared by all-women chefs.
One of the main themes that emerged from the day is the courage and hard work women have to sustain as they advance into their 50s and all the joy—and unspoken disappointment—that can go with it when age discrimination comes into sharper relief.
Women of all ages are a core part of the workforce, with more older people working than ever before, said Debra Whitman, executive vice president and chief public policy officer at AARP and author of The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond, at the MPW Summit.
Yet these women face ageism that pushes them out of jobs—income they need as they age due to gender and race-based pay gaps that leave them with less money in the long run, Whitman said.
“So many women have to work longer,” Whitman told Fortune's Ani Freedman. “Age discrimination is pretty real and it affects women more. Ageism times sexism equals loss.”
That's why women have a gimlet eye trained on the potential use cases for AI in advancements in areas that have lagged, which are often areas women face.
As Fortune's Beth Greenfield reports, Arianna Huffington said, “Sometimes CEOs say, ‘oh, wellbeing is so soft. We need to focus on productivity and business metrics.’ Wellbeing is a productivity multiplier. If your employees are sick or stressed or depleted, do you think they’re going to perform at their best?”
Women are also focused on raising digital-native children and the seductive lure of social media and apps that no generation had as easily accessible.
As Fortune's Chloe Berger wrote, Emmy Award-winning documentarian Lauren Greenfield observed the vast difference between how her two sons, ages 14 and 20 grew up and recognized that there was an addiction at play. The apps are meant to be addictive, Greenfield said. Part of the key change that must happen is in the hands of tech and the government monitoring these inventions. In the meantime, it’s about how we treat the children.
“The first thing we go to is kind of blaming the victims,” said Greenfield, noting that this type of outlook “does not work” and “we don’t treat opiate addiction this way.”
Just as Greenfield took on her concerns about children and social media, Guild founder Rachel Romer had the courage to keep innovating even after she suffered sudden stroke at age 34, reported Fortune's Paolo Confino.
“Every nurse that would come into my room, I would drill them about their career path and ask them lots of questions,” Romer said during her first public appearance since her stroke. “Some nurses started to get weary when they would come in and they would say, ‘I heard you interview every nurse.’ And I would say, ‘yes, I do.’”
And sometimes, you need all three—brains, heart, and courage. Trailblazing Ellevest founder Sallie Krawcheck said she has always had a growth mindset—if there is something that she doesn’t know, she’ll learn it, Confino wrote for Fortune. “In fact, I’m having my most fun when I’m a little bit out over my skis,” she said at the summit.
Yet another sentiment that she chooses to remember in her everyday life is that “nobody boos a nobody.” Throughout her career and various leadership roles, Krawcheck says she has continuously received criticism and dealt with haters. But she wears the negativity like a badge of honor, saying you have to succeed despite the hatred because “pressure is a privilege.”
