Mariko Bando, 64, is the president of Showa Women's University in Tokyo. She is also a best-selling author with more than 30 books under her belt, including "The Dignity of a Woman," which has sold over 3 million copies. An advocate of women's rights, Bando is director of the Japan National Committee of UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women). Her distinguished career has had many highlights. She was the first woman to join the prime minister's office as a career bureaucrat in 1969, where she served the government for 34 years. In 1995, she became vice governor of Saitama Prefecture and in 1998, she was appointed consul general of Japan in Brisbane, Australia, the only woman ever to hold such a post. From 2001 until 2003, she was director general of the Bureau for Gender Equality in then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet. Bando is equally successful in her private life: She's happily married with two children, and is well-known for her mentoring skills, which have earned her the respect and love of people young and old.

Dignity means that when you're breaking the glass ceiling, you do it very carefully to make sure that the shards don't hurt anyone. And afterward, of course, you pick up the pieces. In Japan, we have "bamboo" barriers that keep women out of the circle of power. Luckily, bamboo is flexible: So, as long as you are, too, you can squeeze your way into the center, just like a little snake or lizard.

I never felt inferior to men. At school I knew the answers as well as any boy, so I grew up thinking that women and men had the same potential. The challenge is to know oneself. I quickly realized that I'd do better at work than in the kitchen.