My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future

by Indra Nooyi

I picked Elocution as an elective, a course focused on speeches, poems, and public speaking.

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Raj and I forged ahead in our jobs because we had an extended network, on his side and mine, who stood by us and wanted us to succeed.

When I walked into the kitchen again, I was hopping mad. I slammed the plastic bottle on the counter. “I’ve just become president of PepsiCo, and you couldn’t just stop and listen to my news,” I said, loudly. “You just wanted me to go get the milk!” “Listen to me,” my mother replied. “You may be the president or whatever of PepsiCo, but when you come home, you are a wife and a mother and a daughter. Nobody can take your place. “So you leave that crown in the garage.”

Tara started to express that she wished I could be a “real mom,” too, and show up at the Class Coffees like the other moms. What could I do? I called a teacher at the school whom I was friendly with and asked how many mothers were actually attending. Then I figured out who wasn’t there. The next time Tara mentioned it, I rattled off the names of the other moms in her grade who skipped it. It was my way of coping but may not have been a satisfying response for my young daughter.

I noticed that when a male manager was evaluated, the talk would go like this: “He did a good job, delivered on most of his objectives, and . . .” and then some details about this man’s terrific potential. A woman’s evaluation would get a different twist: “She did a great job, delivered on all of her objectives, but . . .” and then some details about some kind of issue or personality problem that might derail her future success. The and-but phenomenon bothered me tremendously.