Reese Witherspoon encourages women to be ambitious

London, Sep 9 (PTI) Actor Reese Witherspoon said she is encouraging women to be more ambitious and do away with the stigma surrounding them.

The 41-year-old actor said she believed ambitious women have the power to "change (the) society", reported FemaleFirst.

"A couple of years ago I wrote a speech of Glamour Women of the Year about why ambition in women is considered a dirty word. And we do kind of think, they've done all these studies at Harvard and Colombia about how women who have ambitious qualities are seen as selfish or self-serving, and it's actually completely the opposite.

"Usually they have a mission or a drive to help other people, or accomplish something. So I'm just trying to take the stigma off the word so we can encourage more little girls to be ambitious, because I do think that's how society will change," Witherspoon said on "Good Morning America".

Recently, the "Big Little Lies" actor slammed sexism prevalent in Hollywood, saying big studios are uninterested in making films with "female-driven material".