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In 2025, it isn’t unusual to see just one girl in a boardroom. From Fortune 500 firms to small mom-and-pop outlets, typically ladies are onerous to seek out in management. I do know as a result of I have been there. Because the proprietor of a boutique consultancy, I’ve hosted dozens of workshops that assist companies remodel their organizational cultures in direction of inclusion and fairness. However once I lookup from my presentation, typically I’m the one girl within the room.
It isn’t as a result of I’m extra distinctive than different ladies; it is as a result of there are obstacles to entry. Whereas being the “first” or “solely” girl on the desk is usually hailed as progress, it may include hidden prices: stress to overperform, emotional labor, isolation and the unstated expectation to characterize all ladies.
Too many ladies have hit their heads on the glass ceiling (or the concrete wall, which many ladies of colour face) solely to be trapped on the backside rungs of organizations. Luckily, there are structural adjustments we are able to make to take away the obstacles to entry and permit actually proficient and certified ladies to succeed in their full potential.
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Acknowledge your bias
In case you’re a CEO, hiring supervisor or in a management function, ask your self: What are your true emotions about ladies in management? Do you wrestle to belief ladies in high-level positions? Do you end up getting distracted when ladies are talking? Do you end up speaking over or interrupting ladies in conferences? Do you have got a lingering perception that the ladies on the desk want a person within the room to validate their concepts earlier than you think about them?
In case you answered sure to any of those questions, you will have a detrimental bias in direction of ladies in management. With a purpose to take away the obstacles of entry and create house for wonderful ladies to thrive, we should first tackle our personal inside bias round ladies in energy. Solely then can we speak about inclusion and extra.
Depart house for girls to steer
In case you wrestle to belief ladies in high-level positions, think about transferring by that bias by providing alternatives for certified ladies to steer on sure tasks, particularly if their title or expertise signifies that they’re the perfect particular person to steer. Ask them what they want to have the ability to ship on that undertaking and take away obstacles to accessing these assets.
Provide coaching and improvement applications designed to arrange ladies for management and profession development. One instance is Boundless™, a program I created to assist ladies, males, and allies break by systemic obstacles and foster resilience for girls inside organizations. You would be shocked how a collection of studying experiences may help form an govt group’s strategy to management and may pave the way in which for girls to confidently step up.
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Be clear about promotions and development
One of many ways in which ladies turn out to be the “just one” in a room is when they’re courageous sufficient to ask for what they want. It is nonetheless taboo to make the case for development or speak about a wage improve. Most ladies are taught to play small and to maintain these conversations restricted. Nevertheless, a courageous few break by and are in a position to climb the company ladder.
Nevertheless, if firms want for there to be extra ladies in greater positions, having strategic and intentional conversations round pay, profession pathing and promotional transparency is critical. Everybody must know what it takes to succeed in the highest, and everybody ought to at the very least have a way of whether or not they’re able to it. Management could make pay scales clear and obtainable to workers. Firms have the facility to create a roadmap to development so extra ladies can really feel assured taking the leap.
Present the infrastructure for girls’s psychological wellbeing
By no means underestimate the facility of neighborhood and selling psychological wellbeing within the office. In my Boundless™ program, I advocate for leaders and organizations to prioritize radical self-care for his or her workers by giving them methods on the way to decrease burnout and turn out to be an “emotionally-regulated chief,” as I name it. It might sound summary, however there are concrete methods within the type of programming that firms can put into place to make sure that all workers, particularly ladies on the highest ranges, are mentally sound and do not all the time carry the burden of being “the one one.”
Firms may also set up formal worker useful resource teams (ERGs) the place leaders of all genders can join round shared obligations, targets, and influence. From there, they will generate bigger initiatives that encourage extra ladies to return to the desk and create a way of belonging.
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Be agency about anti-discrimination
Whereas many firms have anti-discrimination insurance policies in writing, typically enforcement will be spotty. Some ladies could come to management or HR with a small however vital concern that will get swept below the rug. Not having clear and consequential insurance policies whereas failing to clarify the “why” behind them can depart many ladies weak to harassment and discrimination.
The consequence of a scarcity of agency anti-discrimination insurance policies is that some ladies drop out of management positions, there’s a rise in office hostility that threatens their psychological and bodily wellbeing, and premature departures turn out to be extra prevalent on the firm. Solely when ladies really feel secure, revered and heard can upward mobility be achieved.
Last ideas
In the case of assuaging the burden of being “the one one,” we should transcend symbolic gestures and get to the center of lasting and structural inclusion. It all the time begins with addressing our biases, then elevating the voices and significance of the ladies round us. Creating entry to psychological wellness assets and ERGs helps extra ladies envision themselves in management and keep there. Present pathways for girls to hunt assist when discrimination rears its head. Firms have limitless methods to create safer, extra inclusive areas for girls in management. They only must be devoted to the work and consider within the mission of making house for girls to steer.
