Warsaw Summit Report. Panel 1: Overcoming barriers, including glass ceiling: challenges, opportunities and strategies for women in the legal profession and their professional advancement. Marzena Korzonek judge : being attractive does not mean being stupid. She was a musician, a singer before. She and her music were wellknown in Poland. When she became a judge, a journalist asked her: are you not afraid, as a young attractive women coming from a musical career, to take such a serious position of a judge.
She asked him: would you ask the same question to a man? Physical attractiveness should not be a factor in the professional advancement. The same amounts to age. Women are often considered too young to take a certain role. This question is never asked to men. But for women there is also a very thin line between being too young and being too old. Her takeaway: Say yes to success, say yes to women leaders, say yes to women leaders! Maria Ejkart vice minister : we all know the official version, but we all also know the practice.
Her bias: the biggest barriers she built herself, and breaking those barriers took a lot of time. Fighting her own barriers was and is her biggest challenge. As a vice-minister, she feels that she is judged more harshly and that is why I choose my words carefully.
She works in a very difficult world for women, the prisons. It is a world for men, managed by men. Her biggest challenge is to change this. Finally, she talked about the local elections in Poland yesterday.
A lot of people did not know who to vote, but many said they would vote for the first woman on the list. That is excellent!
