It's a New World
Breaking Through the Leadership Gap: Three Essential Rules for Women to Claim Their Place at the Top
We do not live in the same world our mothers or grandmothers lived in—a world where women’s career choices were profoundly limited. Many of us grew up with access to
fundamental civil rights and broader professional opportunities.
And yet, despite that progress—and despite the reality that many women globally still lack basic rights—we continue to face a serious and persistent challenge:
Women are still not reaching the highest levels of leadership across professions worldwide.
The Leadership Gap Is Real
The numbers tell this story clearly:
Of 190 heads of state globally, only a small fraction are women
Women hold approximately 13% of parliamentary positions worldwide
In corporate leadership, women occupy only about 15–16% of C-suite roles and board seats
Even in nonprofit organizations, women hold only about 20% of top leadership roles
These numbers have remained largely stagnant for years, and in some sectors, progress has regressed.
At the same time, women continue to face disproportionately difficult choices between professional advancement and personal fulfillment.
A U.S.-based study found that among married senior managers:
Two-thirds of married men had children
Only one-third of married women had children
This reflects an ongoing structural imbalance in how career progression and family expectations intersect for women.
Personal Experience: When Systems Weren’t Built for Women
Early in a leadership role within warehouse operations, one of the first concerns raised by colleagues was not about strategy, capability, or qualifications—it was about which restroom I would use.
There wasn’t one designated for women.
This revealed something deeper than logistics: the environment had not been designed with women in mind.
When I asked how long the facility had been operating, the answer was 20 years.
In two decades, I was effectively the first woman in that operational capacity.
That moment reinforced an important truth:
Women often enter spaces where infrastructure, culture, and assumptions were never designed to support their presence.
So How Do We Change This?
How do we shift these numbers?
How do we create lasting equity at the top?
While organizational programs like mentorship, flexibility, and leadership development matter, there are also deeply personal and behavioral shifts women must be empowered to make.
If women want to remain, grow, and lead within the workforce, there are three critical messages we must embrace and pass on:
Women Leaders Rule #1: Sit at the Table
Too often, women underestimate their qualifications, contributions, and readiness for leadership.
Research consistently shows:
Women are less likely to negotiate salaries
Women often underestimate performance
Women frequently attribute success to luck, support, or external factors
Men are more likely to claim ownership of achievement
This matters because leadership opportunities rarely go to those who remain invisible.
Women must:
Advocate for themselves
Own their accomplishments
Negotiate
Raise their hands
Sit at the table, not along the wall
No one advances to executive leadership by consistently shrinking themselves.
The Likability Penalty
One of the greatest challenges women face is the tension between competence and likability.
Research demonstrates that successful men are often viewed positively, while successful women are more likely to be perceived as:
Aggressive
Political
Self-serving
This creates an unfair double bind:
Women must lead confidently while navigating societal penalties for visible ambition.
Despite this reality, women must continue to claim space.
Women Leaders Rule #2: Make Your Partner a True Partner
Progress in the workplace has not been matched equally in the home.
Data shows that in dual-career households:
Women perform significantly more housework
Women perform substantially more childcare
This imbalance directly impacts career sustainability.
For women to thrive professionally, domestic responsibilities must be more equitably shared.
True career advancement often requires:
Shared parenting
Shared household labor
Shared emotional responsibility
Leadership at work is difficult to sustain when leadership at home remains one-sided.
Women Leaders Rule #3: Don’t Leave Before You Leave
Many women begin stepping back professionally long before they actually leave the workforce for caregiving.
This often looks like:
Declining promotions
Avoiding stretch assignments
Reducing ambition preemptively
Quietly disengaging
The intention may be to prepare for future family responsibilities—but the result is often stalled growth, reduced fulfillment, and diminished long-term opportunities.
The key message:
Do not pull back before you must.
Stay engaged.
Keep pursuing advancement.
Maintain momentum until an actual decision is necessary.
Career decisions made too early can unintentionally limit future options.
The Bottom Line
My generation may not fully close the leadership gap.
But future generations can.
To create meaningful change, we must empower women to:
Believe in their own capabilities
Advocate for leadership opportunities
Build equitable support systems
Sustain ambition
Refuse premature self-limitation
A world where women hold half of leadership roles across governments, corporations, and institutions would not simply be more equitable.
It would be stronger.
Because when women lead fully, organizations, industries, and societies benefit.
