Welcome to Courageous Being, a new conscious leadership center for women+ in business. We are intentionally opening doors on March 8th, the day dedicated to honoring the achievements of women and promoting women’s rights.
We add the launch of our digital presence to a wave of support for this year’s International Women’s Daytheme: #EmbraceEquity. This encourages us to consider why “equal opportunities are no longer enough” – and can in fact be exclusionary, rather than inclusive.
From the desk of IWD:
“Equity isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. A focus on gender equity needs to be part of every society’s DNA. And it’s critical to understand the difference between equity and equality.
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
~ Angela Davis
At Courageous Being, we are interested in this radical transformation. We embolden women+ to be natural leaders in business and we encourage everyone to participate in the creation of equity. We teach individuals how to organically grow your innate strengths, stay in your personal power and rise above corporate chaos and fear. We help organizations establish true team cohesion, in the spirit of creating a work environment where everyone feels:
- and respected physically and psychologically
- encouraged to show up at work authentically
- supported to find fulfillment
- validated when you express your purpose
- guided when you lose your footing
- acknowledged when you demonstrate good quality work
… with fair pay as a given.
When women+ take charge of our inner world, we take charge in every part of our lives.
When we ditch the saying “Like a boss!” and embrace being the boss, first of our internal states, and then as leaders in our business roles (whether we manage people or not), supporting one another in the process, we collectively impact change at a GLOBAL level.
3.9 billion. Can you believe that? There are nearly 4 billion women on earth today – locomoting through life in all their magic, beauty, and uniqueness. Just take a moment to picture yourself as 1 of the 4 billion. I’ll set the scene. You’re in a skyrise apartment building, typing on your laptop near one of the windows. You’re watching yourself from outside the window. Then you zoom out. You now see the whole building and all the women living inside it. I’m talking from babies to teens to mid-life to elderly – all the ladies. You zoom out again. Then you see all of the city. Zoom out again, and you see the entire United States. Zoom out once more, and you now see all the women in the world…
Pretty incredible visual, right?
What’s also incredible are the social, cultural, economic, and political advancements made by women over the years. It wasn’t always sunsets and that perfect pair of jeans feeling; in many ways, it still isn’t. We’ve had to battle many injustices and inequalities, and while we’ve made great strides, we still have a ways to go.
Allow us to draw back the curtain for you on the lack of gender parity in business today.
- Just over 10% of Fortune 500 companies have a woman CEO. Nearly half of women leaders say they are burned out, with a record number choosing to leave their company due to feeling overworked and undervalued. And 82% of women caretakers are concerned about losing their jobs.
- For every 100 men who are promoted into management positions, there are just 87 women. And when thinking about the bench, for every one woman who is promoted to senior director, two exit the workforce.
- Women are 14% less likely to be promoted than men, simply because men are offered promotions based on their potential while women need to show proof of past leadership successes. And in the VC world, women founders receive just 2% of funding partly because of bias known as pattern-matching where investors favor founders who look like those who’ve started successful companies in the past, most of whom are white men.
They say it’ll be another 100+ or so years before we reach gender parity. Call us impatient over here at CB, but un-uh, who has that kind of time?
We believe a faster track to change is possible by humanizing the world of business through self-knowledge and conscious leadership behaviors.
Our one wish for you today is that “Happy International Women’s Day” isn’t just another greeting in your work emails. We invite you to really celebrate it with us, in heart and in mind, by honoring yourself and all the other remarkable women…in your life and worldwide.
Thank you with love!
CB