Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Taraji P. Henson speaks out about unequal pay in Hollywood, tennis star Iga Świątek was the highest paid female athlete this year, and we celebrate another year of the Broadsheet.
- Another year in the books. Hi, Broadsheet readers! This is our last edition of 2023. Thank you so much for reading along with us for another year. Can you believe the Broadsheet will mark its 10th anniversary in 2024?
This is my second full year at the helm of the Broadsheet (and almost my sixth working on it!), and it’s an honor to bring you the most important news that impacts women every day.
In 2023, women ran all major U.S. news networks and started to take over telecoms. Women in higher education and venture capital navigated the fallout of new attacks on diversity and inclusion programs. We heard from the youngest female Fortune 500 CEO and the longest-tenured. The ongoing assault on abortion rights continued. We kept track of the progress female execs are making in leadership roles throughout the Fortune 500, the Global 500, and the Fortune 500 Europe. Fortune's annual list of the Most Powerful Women in business was bigger and more global than ever and featured everyone from Kim Kardashian to OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.
To celebrate the close of another year, below are some of the best pearls of wisdom from the women featured in the Broadsheet all year long.
“If they can’t track it, they can’t do it. It gave people a tangible goal to work towards.”
—Aurora James on the success of the Fifteen Percent Pledge
“What’s really exciting is how rapidly technology is advancing.”
—Canva cofounder and CEO Melanie Perkins
“We are telling them from a young age, ‘Your activities are just as important.’”
—Sheryl Sandberg on the importance of professional women’s soccer for girls
"The sidelines are not the middle ground anymore.”
—Jen Stark, co-director of the Center for Business and Social Justice, on why employers need to speak up about abortion rights
“Parties are not this frivolous waste of time. They’re how we build community. There’s something electrifying about being in a room with people.”
—Partiful cofounder and CEO Shreya Murthy
“How do you be a disruptor, because you’re already a disruptor by being different than the rest?”
–Accenture CEO Julie Sweet on the unique preparation diverse leaders have for the rapid change of the AI era
“It’s hard to measure it, but you just have to do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
–Birdies cofounder and CEO Bianca Gates on the risk and reward of sponsoring a women’s sports team as a startup
“Ninety-five percent of leadership is putting the right person in the right job.”
—BlackRock chief investment officer Samara Cohen on the parallels between business leadership and casting in theater
“I only know how to be a Black woman. I don’t know how to be anything else. And so I don’t know how to lead any other way.”
—Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.)
“I want to make sure that I’m not the last—and that I leave the door open.”
—U.S. Deputy Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs Tanya Bradsher on being the first woman of color in her role
Have a restful holiday break. The Broadsheet will be back in your inboxes on Jan. 2. See you in 2024!
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune's newsletter for and about the world's most powerful women. Today's edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
