In her previous career life, Jennifer Willey navigated challenging and ever-evolving industries as a television news anchor and reporter for ABC and CBS, followed by more than 20 years in sales, strategy, and marketing leadership roles for companies such as Yahoo, AOL, and WebMD. Now the founder of Wet Cement and a passionate advocate for women's economic and professional empowerment, Willey applies her experiences and insights to help women and leaders around the world understand the professional challenges women face and how to manage them, especially at the unique intersectionality of gender and disability in leadership. This interview delves into commonalities, solutions, and the importance of strategic networking, shedding light on the need for inclusivity in leadership development.

Through her service on various advisory boards and initiatives focused on women's empowerment, Willey has identified some common challenges that persist across industries. These include confidence, self-advocacy, assertiveness, and strategic networking. From her work with women around the globe, Willey has seen that strategic networking is an especially critical need to advance one’s career. Unfortunately, women often struggle with networking due to a fear of appearing insincere or opportunistic.

As noted in previous posts in this subseries, many of these challenges are understandable given the research on how women are judged more negatively when behaving in........

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