Melissa Bert, Dawn Riley and Josephine Linden, pioneering women in male-dominated fields, gathered Monday at Glen Cove City Hall for a panel discussion led by Glen Cove Council Member Marsha Silverman to celebrate Women’s History Month. This year is the fifth-annual Female Firsts panel held in the city.
“If you pursue it, then it’s not going to be male-dominated,” Riley said.
Bert, a rear admiral, was the first woman to serve as the judge advocate general and chief counsel of the United States Coast Guard. When she first joined the Coast Guard Academy, she said there were only 18 women in her freshman-year class, as opposed to 260 men enrolled in her year. Now, she said, 40% of students enrolled in the academy are women.
Since then she launched the Coast Guard Women’s Leadership Initiative, which supports and mentors women in the field.
Bert said she was inspired by her father, who was in the Coast Guard, and that many of her achievements came from opportunities for which she was the first or only one to volunteer. She said she would tell young women to try everything and stay committed because it may lead them to a better path.
“You have to stick with things because you never know what’s going to happen,” Bert said.
Riley was the first American, male or female, to sail in four America’s Cups and two Whitbread Round the World races. Riley was also the first woman to manage an entire America’s Cup syndicate.
She now serves as the executive director of Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, which is one of the nation’s largest sailing training centers.
Riley said her father and grandmother were both sailors, and the family went sailing on vacations. She said the “turning point” for her came when she was 13 and defeated 30-year-olds in a race.
“A female—a girl, actually—being empowered to be better than a bunch of ‘old’ guys was just life-changing,” she said.
Linden was the first female partner in the private wealth management division at Goldman Sachs. Since then she has founded a wealth management firm and has served on many public, nonprofit and family boards, including serving as the first female chair of Land’s End.
Originally from Australia, Linden moved to Chicago to earn her master’s degree in business after graduating from college. She said Goldman Sachs was her only job offer after school, which she took and eventually moved up the ranks.
Linden said when she first started at Goldman Sachs, she was told that there had never been a girl who was successful in the role.
“Well, that’s enough to make me want to be successful,” she said.
All three women on the panel said they were inspired to succeed by the people who said they could not and they found strength with the other women beside them.
Riley said she encourages women to keep learning. She said she never though she’d need to learn another language, but when she stepped into the general manager role on a French team, she took a “crash course” in the language. She said dedication to learning has helped her expand her role and grow.
All three women said they have had to trust themselves and overcome obstacles in their professional lives, which have required them to trust themselves.
“Just realize you are strong,” Linden said. “You are your own best mentor, you are your own best advocate, and you are also your own worst enemy. So make sure that your advocate and your strength beats the enemy.”
“You have power,” Riley said. “Something’s not right? You have the power to stand up and speak for yourself, 100%.”
