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

by Indra Nooyi

We have two ears and one mouth, so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

“If you take on something, you must give it your all” and “If you make a promise, keep it.” He insisted on reliability.

Educated girls and women are healthier, contribute more to the paid economy, and have far fewer children as teenagers themselves. They lead in their communities.

Work. It’s not really optional. And that’s good, because the benefits of paid work hardly need review: humans thrive when they are challenged; they are proud when they’ve done a job well and gain from being with people who share the same goals. And we all need money to live. I believe that women’s choice to work outside the home is integral to their well-being and their family’s prosperity. Somehow,

people in even the most sophisticated societies have continued to question whether women should engage in paid work at all. This perspective seems connected to the idea that children suffer if a job distracts their mothers from caring for them. In some places, it’s just easier for the whole society to stick with the outdated habits they know.