Carly Fiorina is not the kind of politician most Washington University students support.

Formerly serving as the chief executive officer and chairman of Hewlett-Packard, making her the first woman to lead a Top-20 company as rated by Fortune, Fiorina became known nationwide when she ran for the Republican nomination for president in the 2016 election, subsequently joining Ted Cruz as his vice presidential running mate for the final week of his primary campaign. Cruz’s loss in the Indiana primary made Fiorina’s vice presidential candidacy the shortest in modern United States history.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Former CEO and Chairman of Hewlett-Packard (HP) and 2016 Republican primary candidate Carly Fiorina speaks about leadership to students in Graham Chapel on Tuesday, January 29th.

As a conservative politician, Fiorina’s stances do not represent a large amount of views held by Wash.U. students. A Student Life survey conducted last semester found that 73 percent of Wash.U. students identify as either somewhat or very liberal. Though she identifies as a Republican, Fiorina expressed her belief in the danger of labels, specifically in regards to political parties, in a conversation with Student Life after her Student Union Trending Topics speech on Tuesday night.

“I think all those labels are not helpful,” Fiorina said. “And I mean, we’re so used to them. Liberal, conservative, ‘I’m pro-life,’ ‘I’m pro-choice.’ I just don’t think the labels are useful in any way because people don’t always hear the same things in the label and it sets up preconceived notions. And it sets up hostility, because people, well—‘I don’t like you because you think this.’ So, the first thing that I would say is if you’re going to have a serious conversation about an important issue, that you ask people to leave their labels at the door. You don’t get to say what you are. It’s not important.”

Fiorina commented on the issue of party division within today’s government as she expressed her strong belief that politicians have failed to find solutions to the issues that the United States has continuously faced.

“I don’t think politicians have any interest in solving problems,” Fiorina said. “I really don’t. I think they have been in a system for so long that focuses them on winning. Winning popular opinion, winning polls, winning elections, winning fundraising. Winning. And I think it’s why so many problems have festered for so long.”

As the government emerges from the recent shutdown, Fiorina, who has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump since the primaries leading up to the 2016 election, highlighted both Democratic and Republican leaders’ handling of the shutdown as an example of politicians’ prioritization of political power over actually solving the issues at hand.

“Trump played the shutdown the way he did because his eye is on the 2020 election,” Fiorina said. “[Democratic congresswoman and Speaker of the House Nancy] Pelosi and the Democrats played the shutdown the way they did because their eye is on the 2020 elections. They were both focused on, ‘How’s this gonna play in the next election?’ And, unfortunately, millions of government workers and the citizens who depended on them are the ones that were held hostage.”

Similar to President Trump, Fiorina entered politics after years of working in business rather than in the political world; however, she believes that the values and skills President Trump has learned from his business experience and is using to inform his political decisions are strikingly different from her own, thus rendering him incapable of properly holding office.

“President Trump was the head of a family-owned business,” Fiorina said. “It is an entirely different world than the head of a publicly traded, multi-billion dollar business. His business became more about his brand than anything else. I don’t think he knows anything about a bureaucracy and how to make it work more effectively. I don’t think he knows much about government and how it operates, honestly. And I think he is learning as he goes about what the Constitution actually says.”

Throughout her corporate and political career, Fiorina has worked to ensure a seat at many male-dominated tables, emphasizing her desire for more opportunities for women in the workplace.

“What I think men and women need to understand is if you have a workforce where everyone looks the same, it’s not going to be as effective as a workforce where you bring a lot of different talent to the table,” Fiorina said. “Women are half the talent.”

Fiorina also spoke to the constant challenges that women continue to face throughout their careers, citing #MeToo as a movement that has brought much needed attention to issues she has experienced and witnessed throughout her career.

“I think what the #MeToo movement has revealed is that things haven’t changed all that much from when I started out,” Fiorina said. “So, the demeaning of women, the diminishment of women, the assault and harassment of women, it still goes on. The other reality of the #MeToo movement is every scandal that was revealed—it wasn’t a surprise. I mean, it may have been a surprise to the people who read about it, but the people who were involved in that organization, everybody knew it was going on and nobody said anything because they were powerful people.”

Though Fiorina noted the frequency of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace, she expressed her belief that the problem lies more in people’s silence regarding the issue rather than the amount of men committing the acts.

“Most men are good men,” Fiorina said. “Most men don’t engage in that behavior, but too many men and women—I have written publicly on this subject—too many men and women don’t say anything when they know it’s happening. So, I hope the outcome of the #MeToo movement is that more people speak up. I hope the outcome of the #MeToo movement is not that women and men are afraid to work together as colleagues, because most men are good and most men don’t engage in that behavior, although they may look the other way when they see that behavior.”

However, Fiorina regards President Trump’s success in the 2016 election as an example of a man’s mistreatment of women coming to the public’s attention, yet failing to initiate real consequences for him. Fiorina has continuously denounced President Trump’s derogatory comments about women, including those he made about her appearance during the 2016 election primaries.

“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?” Trump told Rolling Stone. “Can you imagine that, the face of our next president.”

Though the #MeToo movement has brought more attention to the constant discrimination toward women in both professional and non-professional realms, Fiorina does not predict that this growing awareness will affect President Trump’s chances in the 2020 election.

“You know, the truth is I think people knew that Trump was disrespectful to women in many ways when he was elected. I do,” Fiorina said. “So I don’t know that it will make a difference. I think character makes a difference, but I’m not sure about that. I don’t think we learned anything new about President Trump because of the #MeToo movement. I think we knew about him.”

Fiorina’s visits to liberal campuses such as Wash. U. have taught her the importance of engaging in discussions that include people of all backgrounds and political beliefs. However, she acknowledged that these conversations can be difficult to have, as certain issues can be extremely divisive and emotionally charged, so she urged students to work to slowly develop their ability to initiate open and productive dialogues.

“Start with something that is a little closer to home,” Fiorina said. “Practice collaboration in a conversation about a divisive issue on something a little less charged. Maybe there’s an issue on campus that people have opinions on or that is important or a problem. Start with that where you have a little more common experience and learn the art of a respectful, substantial conversation. You can disagree and be respectful. Practice is important, actually. And labels are not helpful.”