For a long time, I rejected the idea of women’s leadership.
A leader is a leader. Full stop.
When I was a manager in a company, I did not want to be placed in a separate category.
Complexity, decisions, conflict, exposure, loneliness:we all face the same challenges.
And then I became a coach.
And then I started working on the topic.
And I thought: I wish I had known this sooner.
Today, what I observe is simple.
Yes, there are universal challenges.And yes, there are also specific issues that affect many women leaders.
Not because they are “different by nature.”
But because the environment in which they operate was not built with them in mind.
Historically, companies were structured around codes of power, career, and authority rooted in a largely masculine world.
That is not an opinion. It is a historical fact.
And even though companies have evolved (thankfully), some codes remain.
Often implicit.Often invisible… until we name them.
One book shed a lot of light on this for me: How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith.
It highlights behaviors that frequently hold women leaders back:
Trying too hard to prove their competence.
Not claiming their achievements.
Overvaluing loyalty.
Avoiding visible conflict.
Waiting for “the work to speak for itself.”
Seeking to be liked rather than to influence.
I do not see these as weaknesses.
I see them as strategies of adaptation to a given system.
Recently, in coaching, I surprised myself by asking this question:
“If you were a man, how would you handle this situation?”
The first time, it came out almost intuitively.
And the reaction was immediate.
A different stance.A different relationship to risk.A different inner permission.
This is not an invitation to become someone else.
It is an invitation to see the implicit rules of the game.
An invitation to navigate the system differently.
One point feels essential to me:
I am not trying to oppose the feminine and the masculine.
Nor am I claiming any kind of moral superiority.
I simply want to acknowledge that systems have a history.
That codes are not neutral.
And that navigating them with lucidity is a strategic skill.
So, as International Women’s Day approaches, perhaps the real question is not: “Does women’s leadership exist?”
But rather:
What implicit rules are we still applying without questioning them?
And what strategies are women still silently expected to adapt to?
Recognizing this is not activism.
It is organizational maturity.
The leadership of tomorrow will not be a matter of gender.
It will be a matter of systemic awareness.