Serena Williams joined the Forbes Power Women’s Summit in New York City to discuss power and what happens when women take ownership of it.
“We don’t really need a man to save us,” tennis legend Serena Williams told a room full of women in September. “I know I don’t.”
It was a fitting message for the 14th annual Forbes Power Women’s Summit, held at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, where women from across business, entertainment, sports and beyond gathered around one central theme: power, and what happens when women take ownership of it.
Williams spoke about taking control of where capital flows. U.S. Bancorp CEO Gunjan Kedia challenged leaders to abandon traditions that no longer serve them. And women including actor Jennifer Garner, Chanel CEO Leena Nair, NASA astronaut Christina Koch and Clear CEO Caryn Seidman Becker shared lessons from their own paths to the pinnacle of success.
When Moira Forbes, executive vice president of Forbes, first launched the summit 14 years ago, she recalled that “power” was often a controversial word when applied to women. “Women were really uncomfortable with the word ‘power.’ ‘Impact’ was okay, ‘having influence’ was acceptable.”
Today, women wield more of it than ever: The 100 women on the 2025 Forbes World’s Most Powerful Women list command a collective $37 trillion in economic power and influence more than 1 billion people. But having more women in positions of power doesn’t mean the gaps have disappeared.
Williams learned that firsthand when she turned her attention from tennis to venture capital. She was stunned to discover how little venture funding went to women—around 2%.
“I thought it was a misread, a mistype, or a misquote,” she told the crowd. In response, she looked to who was getting a seat at the VC table in the first place. “My idea is changing the top of the funnel.”
Through Serena Ventures, Williams has backed more than 100 companies, many of which are women-led and women-focused (such as Midi Health, a startup focused on improving care for women navigating menopause).
For U.S. Bancorp’s Kedia, who ranks No. 23 on the Forbes Power Women’s list, taking ownership means refusing to accept that the way things have always been done as the way forward. “The choice of the leader is to look at the windshield, not the rearview mirror,” she told the crowd. Her advice to anyone stepping into a position of power is to question the traditions that helped get you (or the company) there. “Never let your past tradition become a prison.”
Take it from her—Kedia’s first job was selling air fresheners door-to-door in Delhi. Today, she is the first woman CEO at U.S. Bancorp, one of the largest commercial banks in the United States, with more than $600 billion in assets.
And throughout the day, that same idea surfaced again and again: Power isn’t simply about reaching the top. It’s about what you choose to change once you get there—and that can come to fruition in different ways. For 21-year-old Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu, it meant defining her own terms for why she wants to be a winner.
Realizing that she wasn’t competing for herself pushed her to take a hiatus from the sport in 2022, but she announced her return in 2024. And in 2026, she won Olympic gold—on her terms. For Ali Truwit, power meant surviving a shark attack and finding it within herself to regain her love for the water to ultimately compete at the Paris Paralympic Games—and win two silver medals—just over a year after her leg was amputated.
And Under 30 alum Vivian Tu left the crowd with a very simple, very practical piece of advice: Understand your money. “Money is a tool, a resource, a skill, a muscle,” says the Wall-Street-employee-turned-creator known as YourRichBFF. We all deserve an opportunity to learn about money. It gives us freedom and choice.”
Read the full live blog of the 2026 Power Women’s Summit here.
Zoya & Alex
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
