The power lunch is no longer just for men. We all deserve a seat

In the words of Whitney Wolfe Herd, we hear the cry of justice wrapped in simple imagery: “The power lunch is no longer just for men. We all deserve a seat at the table.” This is not merely about food or meetings—it is about power, access, and the right to shape the future. The power lunch, once a symbol of closed circles where only men decided matters of wealth and influence, is here reimagined as a place where women, too, must stand and speak.

The table becomes the great metaphor. In every age, to sit at the table has meant to belong to the council where destinies are shaped. To be excluded is to have no voice; to be included is to share in the weaving of the world’s fabric. Wolfe Herd’s words remind us that leadership, wisdom, and vision are not bound by gender, and that the age of one-sided power is ending. The banquet of decision must now welcome all.

History recalls the figure of Cleopatra, who sat as an equal with Caesar and Antony, not only as a lover but as a ruler whose strategies preserved her kingdom for generations. In her presence at their councils, she claimed her own seat at the table, proving that intellect and authority are not chained to the bodies of men. Yet hers was the rare exception; Wolfe Herd speaks so that equality may become the rule, not the anomaly.

Her words are also a call to courage. For to claim a seat is not to wait to be invited, but to walk boldly forward, declaring that worth and vision give as much right as tradition once gave to privilege. The breaking of barriers always demands such boldness, as when women first entered universities, or when voices long silenced began to speak in halls of law and commerce.

Thus, let this wisdom endure: the power lunch is more than a meal, it is the symbol of influence itself. And influence, like the light of the sun, belongs not to one half of humanity but to all. Let every daughter and son be taught: do not be content to stand at the edges of the feast—claim your seat at the table, bring your voice to the council, and shape with your wisdom the world that is to come. For true strength is found not in exclusion, but in shared power.