We Need to Talk About What's Really Happening
We Need to Talk About What's Really Happening to Women in the Workplace.
And Act On It.
By Christine Bongard
"Everything is fine" is the most dangerous lie we're being told.
We're being told that gender parity in the workplace is "getting better." But the numbers tell a completely different story.
According to an Eightfold AI study, women are 65% more likely to be laid off than men. McKinsey & LeanIn.Org research showed that in 2024, only 81 women got promoted for every 100 men (in 2023 it was 87 women!). Women in tech earn $0.84 per male dollar, according to U.S. Census Bureau / Tech reports, while female founders receive only 2% of VC funding (PitchBook VC Dashboard)!
And when 72% of women report toxic bro culture (TrustRadius 2021 / Fawcett Society 2023) and we speak up, we're told we're "being too sensitive!"
The stats are telling. But the most insidious part is that when we bring up these statistics, the data gets questioned. Our lived experience gets dismissed. We're asked if we're "sure it's that systemic." We spend our energy proving our reality instead of changing it.
The New York Times published an article this fall questioning whether feminism "ruined" the workplace. This gives cultural permission to dismiss women's concerns as overreaction rather than addressing the actual crisis unfolding in our workplaces.
77% of Male Executives Think They're Allies. Only 45% of Women Agree.
This is what an IWL Foundation/McKinsey study revealed. The gap tells us something critical about what's really happening in our organizations.
When male leadership grows more confident they're "doing enough" while women's experience actively worsens, we're dealing with a systemic problem that has real consequences:
- 57% of women experience burnout compared to 36% of men, yet we're told "everyone's stressed" (The Prosperity Project 2023)
- Women leave tech at 35, right when we reach peak value with expertise, knowledge, and leadership readiness (Accenture & Girls Who Code study)
- Computer science degrees for women dropped from 37% in 1984 to 20% in 2025, making future parity mathematically impossible without intervention (National Center for Education Statistics research).
The pipeline is collapsing. And we're still being asked to prove it's happening.
The truth nobody wants to say out loud:
The mathematical collapse continues. Without urgent intervention, senior leadership gender parity in 10 years becomes mathematically unachievable. Organizations hemorrhage millions in training costs, losing women exactly when they could transform culture.
The perception gap widens. As male leaders grow more confident in their allyship while women's reality worsens, the culture of dismissal becomes self-reinforcing. The distance between what leadership believes is happening and what women actually experience grows dangerously wide.
The internalization sets in. Women start questioning their own experience: "Maybe I am being too sensitive. Maybe it is just me." They leave quietly, accepting the narrative that they weren't cut out for business or technology when the reality is that systems weren't designed for them to thrive.
This is what's at stake if we do nothing about it.
Let's Stop Proving Our Reality and Start Building Our Power
For years, we've been caught in an exhausting loop: We cite our experience, and we're told we're exaggerating. We gather evidence, and we're told it's cherry-picked. So, let’s talk less and do more.
We must make the shift from proving our reality over and over again to building our power. And one of the first steps in that journey is to build peer networks so strong that isolation can't make us question our reality, and accountability frameworks so concrete that dismissal has nowhere to hide.
Transformation happens at Igniting Excellence 2026 – Rising Together, Leading Forward
Despite decades of "lean in" conferences, representation has reversed. The 81:100 promotion gap and 65% higher layoff rate prove that individual empowerment alone can't fix systemic challenges.
Here at The WIT Network, we decided to offer women some hands-on support, not just inspiration. We created a women leadership event that takes a different approach to helping women build their power and claiming their space in the workplace.
We didn't want another keynote about resilience or another panel about imposter syndrome. Those leave you motivated for a week, then back to the same challenges with no support system.
Igniting Excellence is an immersive transformation experience that gives you:
- Peer Validation Networks – Structured mentoring circles that end isolation. When you gather with women who've faced the same challenges, it becomes clear that these patterns are systemic, not personal failures.
- Practical Accountability Tools – You won't just learn about challenges. You'll practice how to navigate them. You leave with language, frameworks, and confidence to use them in real situations.
- Wellness as Foundation – Burnout isn't personal failure. It's often the result of navigating systems that weren't designed for your success. We integrate retreat, movement, and restoration so you stop internalizing exhaustion as inadequacy.
- Progressive Transformation – Four intentional tracks take you on a journey: Ignite (reconnect with purpose) to Connect (build peer networks) to Lead (develop leadership frameworks) to Elevate (advanced strategies). This is sequential transformation that meets you where you are.
- Whole-System Engagement – Women leaders, rising talent, HR executives, and allies share the same space. Inspiring speakers and fierce women leaders like Gavriella Schuster, Tiffani Bova, Gloria Feldt, and many others, will be sharing their voice.
The WIT Network's 15,000+ member community is a testament to our sustained engagement and measurable career acceleration.
Past attendees of Igniting Excellence - our event held in Dallas in March 2025 - report expanded networks, career clarity, and confidence to demand change. Corporate sponsors see retention improvements and cultural shifts when teams attend together.
They have already witnessed and experienced how together we can move from isolation to peer-validated reality and collective power. From performative "women's initiatives" to measurable accountability structures.
Join Us. Transform With Us.
Igniting Excellence 2026 has an intentional theme called: Rising Together, Leading Forward. We refuse to accept dismissal and start building the power structures that make our voices impossible to ignore.
This is your invitation. Whether you're exhausted and need community, ready to lead and need frameworks, or a male ally who wants to create real change, this is your space.
Celebrate the 2026 International Women’s Day with us by building something better.
- Join us March 10-12, 2026, at sunny San Diego, California
- Add the Rise & Reignite Pre-Conference Retreat
- Bring Your Team – Corporate Packages Available
- Register HERE today.
You belong here. Let's do this. Together.
Sources:
Eightfold AI study
McKinsey & LeanIn.Org research
U.S. Census Bureau / Tech reports
TrustRadius 2021 / Fawcett Society 2023
IWL Foundation / McKinsey study
