Shonda Rhimes delivers a powerful speech about breaking the glass ceiling

Shonda Rhimes, the writer and producer of "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal" and "How To Get Away With Murder," is popular for her portrayal of strong women characters in her shows. Rhimes was recently awarded the #SherryLansingLeadershipAward at The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment breakfast yesterday and her powerful acceptance speech was praised by many.

This is how Rhimes started her speech: “This moment right here, me standing up here all brown with my boobs and my Thursday night of network television full of women of color, competitive women, strong women, women who own their bodies and whose lives revolve around their work instead of their men, women who are big dogs, that could only be happening right now. Think about it.”

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Rhimes insisted that she hadn’t broken any #glassceilings. She said she didn’t feel the bruises and she knows others did. She spoke of the women 50 years ago- white women and women of colour. She said that if she was born 50 years ago, she’d be serving breakfast to one of the only two women producers in the industry. The fact that there were a good number of women in one room, who weren’t there to discuss babies; was a giant leap.

She said that all the women who went before her took all the bruises, cuts and wounds and slowly cracked the glass. She went on to add that after hundreds of women crashing into the ceiling and making it weak and filled with holes; when she reached the ceiling, it broke because it was already fragile. Rhimes ended her speech by saying that she comes from a very competitive family and nobody gets a participation prize, but the one she was holding was for participation because she is not the only one who broke the glass ceiling.