I think it's critical that you feel you're working for a person who is committed to advancing your career.

I can only have dinner with my girlfriends once a month instead of once a week.

You know, you go home and you try on a new mascara, and I guess a male CEO can't do that.

Avon invented the concept of direct marketing and direct selling beauty. And that's still very valid to us. We'll have a firm that will be around for another 114 years as strongly as it was the first 114.

There are pros and cons of experience. A con is that you can't look at the business with a fresh pair of eyes and as objectively as if you were a new CEO. Fire yourself on a Friday night and come in on Monday morning as if a search firm put you there as a turn-around leader. Can you be objective and make the bold change?

Women like myself, CEOs, can pave the way for more women to get to the top.

No one in my family had a retail or marketing background. They were professionals. They didn't understand just what I was doing by going into retailing. After I started, though, it got into my blood. I knew this was what I wanted.