Since leaving DB, I have participated in many conferences and swish events that other financial institutions have held for their women's groups.

Of course the female experience is different from those of our male peers - just like every woman's story is different from their fellow females.

The smartest and most successful people I know are the people who are constantly evolving, always learning. It does not end with school.

From Warren Buffett to Jamie Dimon to Paul Tudor Jones, no one has cracked the code and put a critical mass of top women in the C-Suite or near it.

Instituting equal pay is especially important because families in our country increasingly rely on women's wages to make ends meet. When women bring home less money each day, it means they have less for the everyday needs of their families - groceries, rent, child care, and doctors' visits.

Money doesn't just buy a nice car; it also buys better education or healthcare. Increasingly, it can buy impunity from justice, a pliant media, favorable laws, business advantage, and even elections. This, in turn, perpetuates the policies that allow a tiny elite to accumulate ever more wealth at the expense of the majority.

I really wanted to go to a city and get involved in a theater scene and a theater community. I had some friends who had moved out to Chicago and had said really good things about it and about the work. I didn't care at that time about making money.

Before I had my son, I became obsessed by this painting I'd seen in an art gallery. It was a lot of money, but I felt such a rush of adrenaline when I wrote the cheque to buy it. I thought I was going to gaze lovingly at it forever, but after just two weeks, I realised I didn't really like it any more.