Welcome to The Broad Experience, the show about women, the workplace and success. I'm Ashley Milne Tite.

This week, I speak to two successful women about what it takes to get ahead. They have quite a bit in common, but there are also some fundamental differences in their beliefs about what, if anything, holds women back.

Frankly, I read the Financial Times for its columnists.

One of those is Mrs. Moneypenny, who writes about work and family life.

Her real name is Heather McGregor.

She owns her own headhunting company in London,

and she's the author of a new book called Sharpen Your Heels,

Mrs. Moneypenny's Career Advice for Women.

I started off by asking her about something

that struck me about halfway into the book. You say you don't believe in the glass ceiling. Why is that?

Tell me about that. Because I don't think there's ever been any lack of opportunity for women in my

lifetime. I'm perfectly

prepared to accept that when we didn't have the vote, there was a bit of a tricky issue and

there have been other things along the way. But in my lifetime, I think there has been nothing

standing in the way of women's progress other than their ability to make choices.

What do you mean?

People are raised to believe they can have it all, you know, at least young girls are.

And I can understand why people want to encourage young girls, because lack of confidence

is one of the greatest problems that women have.

So people encourage young girls to believe they can reach for the stars,

they can have an exceptional career, at the same time make a fabulous marriage, have an amazing sex life, raise well-balanced children, and still have time to go to Pilates. And this, of course,

is completely a fabrication, okay? It's complete fiction. No man manages that. So why should we be able to?

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