Caputi: Women and girls, continue to be interrupters

City of Scottsdale Vice Mayor Tammy Caputi had a frank conversation recently with a diverse group of successful local women who are making their own history.

In April, Caputi hosted a "Women Leading in Scottsdale" roundtable discussing gender in the workplace. She invited five local women to share their experiences as leaders and to give suggestions on how to move forward. On the panel were Anna Sepic, vice president at LevRose Commercial Real Estate; Lawdan Shojaee, former CEO of AxoSoft; Jennifer Schrader, president, COO and co-founder of Caliber Companies; Katie Perry, executive vice president and incoming president of Haydon Building Corp.; and Sepideh Nasiri, founder and CEO of Women of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) In Technology.

“Some people say they don’t think of success as being male or female, that it’s just about working hard, but unless we recognize the challenges, biases, and structural barriers still in our way as women in 2022, we can’t fix them for ourselves and for our daughters,” says Caputi. “Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright implored women to speak their minds. She said, ‘No raising hands, no hoping someone will see you and think you have something to say. You have to interrupt.’”

Read Vice Mayor Tammy Caputi’s Opinion published in the Scottsdale Independent, April 2022.