3 career lessons from TIME Firsts women

3 career lessons from TIME Firsts women3 career lessons from TIME Firsts womenYesterday, TIME released a list called TIME Firsts Women Leaders Who Are Changing the World, highlighting the accomplishments of 46 icons in their respective fields.The collection of womens stories also happens to be a treakoranvers trove of work wisdom. Heres what a few members of the list can teach you about yur career.Oprah Winfrey Why you should trust yourselfAs The Titan, Winfrey was deemed the first woman to own and produce herbei own talk show, and demonstrated that when it comes to work, the answers lie within.During the TIME interview, she said, I made every single choice of my career based on my gut. I would literally ask myself, Does this feel right? So when I got my show in Chicago, I built it around myself and the producers. We were young women in our 30s who were trying to figure it out and find our own way. Wed literally sit around and say, Whats going on in your life? What happened at the be auty shop this week? Whats your mother talking about? What are your friends saying?She also made it clear that its important to stick up for those who report to you and that women have the power to lift each other up at work.Winfrey mentioned how when The Oprah Winfrey Show was syndicated - which TIME mentions is the highest-rated talk show in TV history, with a 25-year run - she was making much more money than before, unlike her producers whose salaries hadnt changed.Her boss didnt want to give them a raise when Winfrey requested one for them, but said she would refuse to work unless they got one. She got her wish. She said she took money from her own pocket when she was waiting for them to start getting more money.Melinda Gates Why we need to take womens issues more seriouslyAs The Philanthropist, Gates was called the first woman to give away more than $40 billion. The co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationdemonstrates that women arent getting all the attention they d eserve in philanthropy.Ive come to learn that, as in business, we havent had good data in philanthropy. Were getting it now. But even when the world says they invest in data, they dont invest in data around women. And if we dont invest in collecting statistics about women, we dont know how and where to act. So Im making sure that we take these business principles to womens issues. Then we can get the world to invest, she said in the TIME interview.Sheryl Sandberg We have a long way to go in terms of gender equalityAs The Mogul, Sandberg was named the first woman to become a social-media billionaire. She hammers home the point that we havent reached the finish line when it comes to womens representation at work - especially in higher-level jobs.In the interview, the Facebook COO and first woman member of the organizations board of directors mentioned how when she started working in 1991,there were equal men and women. The women were just as smart, sometimes smarter (no offense, gent lemen).However, Sandberg said that there were fewer women in meetings she attended as time went on.She continued This stalling of progression for women in leadership led to my writing Lean In. Women had moved forward from the 60s or 70s till about 10 years ago, and they have stopped. We need to fix that, be alarmed by that, proclaim it as the really urgent crisis it is.The women on TIMEs list further demonstrate that women have made incredible strides in work over many decades, but theyre not done yet - not even close.