Women are Opting & Burning Out Of Leadership

Mar 09, 2023

 

In honor of #internationalwomensday and #womenshistorymonth we at Her Biorhythm ™ want to raise awareness around a core global issue for women.

In recent years, “Gender Equity and Inclusion” has become all the buzz. This is following a staggering mass exodus of women from the workforce in 2021 that raised eyebrows about corporate inclusivity.

In fact, millions upon millions of dollars have been pumped into global corporate structures in the name of “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion”, yet we have made LITTLE TO NO PROGRESS in actually creating working environments that truly INCLUDE women. 

Instead of asking questions to uncover the root cause of women’s mass exodus, we question their capabilities and slap a bandaid of DE&I on a hemorrhaging wound - further driving toxic behaviors that push women out of the workforce.

“CAN WOMEN REALLY HAVE IT ALL?” 

Is a question that BBC News posed to their global audience after Jacinda Ardern (Prime Minister of New Zealand) stepped down from office in January of this year, stating “I’ve got no gas left in the tank.” 

Not only was this a HUGE loss for the world and women leaders globally, but the question “can women really have it all?” is a prime example of TOXIC beliefs that underly NON-inclusive societal infrastructures and systems. 

This question and media coverage surrounding the PM’s resignation distracted from the real core issue: Jacinda was not properly supported to thrive in her leadership role. 

And in a world who’s economy is now driven by women (majority of consumer spending) it’s amazing how our economic/corporate structures still alienate women and prevent them from achieving/maintaining leadership roles.

This is only a symptom of a much deeper and much more serious issue:

OUR SOCIETAL INFRASTRUCTURES EXCLUDE WOMEN

Why? Because we built our society (structures, systems, beliefs) from DATA, and that dataset is MALE-CENTRIC. 

Here’s the deal… We study men, and as a result, we understand men - how they operate and what they need to succeed. Inevitably creating systems and standards that support and align with men (only).

We don’t have the same data on women. We don’t understand women’s basic biological needs. We don’t know how to properly support women. And, by default, we exclude them from our societal systems and standards.

So, even though gender inequalities have been identified, and millions are being allocated to solve it, we will never make progress until we acknowledge that WOMEN AND MEN ARE DIFFERENT and have very different needs that require different environments, infrastructures, systems, and expectations.

We need to fix the root problem: WOMEN ARE NOT UNDERSTOOD 

We need to start asking the right questions and collecting women-centric data to inform REAL INCLUSIVE SOLUTIONS. 

We can put as many women as we want into leadership positions to “fix the stats” but until we create infrastructures that align with women’s basic biological needs and support their success, we will never see sustainable change. 

Until then, women will continue to burn out and/or opt out of the workforce and societal leadership positions.

We need to do better.

To go deeper into this topic, check out our Mini Course on the Women's Exhaustion Gap