Here I was, standing in front of a full classroom of students, not quite fully ready to step into this new academic career. Everything in my past experience, from shying away from speaking up, to a predominantly behind-the-scenes corporate career, seemed to go against what I was about to begin. But I had to begin… so one word after the other, one practical application after the other, I transitioned careers from Big Corporate to Big Academia. Slowly but surely, I learned to reclaim my own style of leadership in a new career, a new space, and a new expression of purpose. And I’m glad to report I haven’t looked back ever since…
Many Obstacles to Women’s Leadership…
The Merriam-webster dictionary defines leadership as the “capacity to lead”. As a working mom and a woman of color, leadership was initially quite the foreign concept for me. It may also have been for you. I mean, the blatant under-representation of women, especially women of color, from the boardroom to the office and the front of the classroom, has not exactly been encouraging. As of 2023, women only held 10.6% of leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies. This is with only two Black women in leadership, including Thasunda Brown Duckett at TIAA and Roz Brewer at Walgreens. The plethora of societal biases plaguing the very existence of women in certain professional and entrepreneurial spaces has not helped either. Nor has the recent rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in light of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning affirmative action.
In an era where threats against women’s belonging in and legitimacy are over-abundant, it is fair to wonder how to lead. Or if we can even lead…Some of the most pressing questions around women’ s leadership have been:
How do you lead when very few of those who look like you are in positions of leadership? How do you lead when there is no blueprint or support for someone like you to lead?
And how do you lead in the face of constant change, threats to your very belonging, and societal biases questioning your very existence in certain spaces?
Yet, the leadership we see is not the leadership we can get…
Yet, when it comes to women’s leadership, could it be that what we see is not exactly what we can get? The thing is, when I used to think of leadership, I thought of it as being in a position of authority or power as traditionally defined by society. While this may be true in some cases, what occurred to me through my career is that while valid, this is only an external manifestation of leadership. Although not many women currently hold traditional offices of power and authority, many, if not, most women are natural-born leaders and naturally lead in their environments. Effective leadership skills such as communication, organization and consensus are innate to women. So could it be that the real issue is not so much to focus on having more women leaders, but rather to first help more women develop their own, already existing, capacity to lead?
Experience has taught me over and over again, that true leadership is not a matter of external positioning. Rather, it’s one of internal positioning. As working women and moms, much of the battle of reclaiming our authentic brand of leadership starts within. It starts with the reframing of our mindsets about what leading means to each and every one of us. It is in the development of our internal capacity to lead first, which then flows into authentic external manifestation.
If you have been wondering how to reclaim your own leadership in these uncertain times, here are three strategies you may want to consider:
Define your own brand of authentic leadership
What does leadership mean to you in this season of your life and career? This is a question I invite you to ponder not just every once in a while, but periodically and consistently. While it took a big shift for me to reclaim a sense of authentic leadership, it may not have to take as much for you.
Whether you are just starting your career, or in the midst of a personal or professional transition, now is as good a time as any to define your own style of leadership. Some questions you may ask yourself in the process include:
What are your specific strengths and values, and how do they color the way you lead?
What is your style of leadership?
Which spaces are most aligned with your leadership, and which are not?
If you’re on your own leadership journey, I strongly recommend reading “Dare to Lead“ by Brene Brown. This book will help you become braver as you cultivate the courage to lead from the heart.
Develop a holistic approach to leadership
Leadership starts within. It is after all, the capacity to lead. So it cannot, and should not, be confined to the bounds of some office space, boardroom, or professional arena. As women especially, our leadership tends to permeate every area of our lives, from motherhood, to relationships and work. This is exactly what makes us capable of leading in very unique, authentic and effective ways.
As you reframe your own leadership, let it build up from everything you bring to the table as a working woman and mom. How you lead at home will impact how you lead in the workplace, and vice-versa. There are no compartments really. There are only parts that can and should integrate one with the others, like puzzle pieces that ought to work together to create a full, and fulfilling picture of a life well-lived.
Some questions you may ask yourself include:
How does the way I lead at home or in my relationships inform the way I lead at work?
What are the skills, strengths and values I bring to my leadership outside of the workplace? How can I repurpose them professionally? And vice-versa?
What kind of leader am I in the various areas of my life? And how can I embrace a holistic leadership approach encompassing all the spaces I evolve in?
Adapt, pivot and change
Nothing remains the same. Developing your own capacity to lead is also developing your ability to adapt, pivot and change. From remote work to the advent of artificial intelligence, the world of work continues to evolve. So must we continue to adapt and evolve as well…
Transitioning careers has taught me invaluable lessons on the power of adapting, while remaining authentic to one’s purpose. As a matter of fact, had this transition not happened, I would probably not have stumbled upon my own capacity to lead. Change is often the catalyst that spurs us to step into areas of ourselves we may not have suspected, or may have previously minimized. So if there is an area of growth or change that you have been resisting, this may be your sign to use it as an opportunity to adapt, pivot and change.
Some questions you may ask yourself include:
What are the changes that are happening in my personal and professional world?
How are these changes calling me out of my comfort zone?
What can I learn from and become through these changes as a leader?
If you’re looking to develop your capacity to adapt, pivot and change, “Who Moved My Cheese?” is an absolute read. This book offers a simple yet so effective approach to handling change and personal growth.
All in all, since the dawn of times, women have reclaimed leadership despite the fear and uncertainty surrounding them. Today is no exception. By reframing your own style of leadership, building it up from the sum of your life experiences, and developing your own capacity to adapt, you can do the same, on your own terms.
The other day, I innocently asked Dear Daughter why she did not ask me to go to the store instead of her dad. To which she quickly responded: “Mom, you’re kind of cheap…” After the initial maternal hurt and shock, coupled with the realization that my dear child also believes buying all of Sephora amounts to a very affordable purchase, I got to thinking about what financial power truly means for working women and moms.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve valued financial security. Raised by a single mom who often reminded us kids that money doesn’t grow on trees, I understood the value of money very early on. However, for the longest time, this understanding was coupled with fear. It was the same fear that also kept me paralyzed when it came to money matters later on in life, from negotiating my salaries to learning to invest. Fast-forward a few decades punctuated by personal growth, marriage, motherhood, and career changes, and my financial outlook has been on quite the journey along with me. The more I learned to value myself and my unique purpose, the more my outlook on money morphed from fearful reliance to secure appreciation.
GENDER PERSPECTIVES ON FINANCIAL POWER.
The reality is, much of our money mindset and attitudes about money are often rooted in gender-based social conditioning. Indeed, research clearly shows men and women hold different conceptions of money. While men tend to consider money as a success and power symbol, women tend to consider money both as a source of security and anxiety. Men also tend to be more prone to pursuing financial investments than women. However, both genders share similar attitudes toward monitoring savings and expenses.
WOMEN’S FINANCIAL CHALLENGES.
Women are also no strangers to significant financial challenges. One of the latter can be summarized in one simple but loaded word: “Busyness”. According to an April 2023 Pew Research report, women complete on average 4.6 hours of housework as compared to 1.9 hours for men. Where both spouses share the same earning power, women take on 6.9 hours of household chores vs. 5.1 hours for men. This disparity obviously and significantly reduces women’s availability and ability to dedicate time to financial education and growth.
Indeed, the 2021 Survey of Household Economics and Decision Making (SHED) reveals substantial gender differences in financial literacy. While this is partially due to lack of motivation and confidence, other factors such as the wage gap, time spent by women outside the workforce, and the inequity in gender’s responsibilities at home, are also to blame. Considering women tend to live on average longer than their male counterparts, these staggering differences tend to impact them more heavily.
THE FEMINIZATION OF WEALTH.
Despite these challenges, women are thankfully far from being out of the financial game. If you’ve heard of the Great Wealth Transfer, you may know it’s an enormous shift of financial ownership in the United States set to occur in the next couple of decades. Currently, half of the wealth in the US is held by Boomers. However, in the next 20 years, it is predicted to land in the hands of a majority of women. As women tend to live longer than men, more women Boomers will be in charge of their family’s wealth. Additionally, a record number of single millennial women are set to inherit most of the future wealth. As a result, by 2030, American woman are predicted to manage at least $30 trillion in wealth. Which is more than the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in the hands of women! Talk about the feminization of wealth…
FINANCIAL WELLNESS IS SELF-CARE.
For all these reasons and beyond, financial self-care is now more than ever an absolute necessity for women. Caring for one’s finances as a working woman and mom is an act of radical self-care and community care. Indeed,financial self-care impacts families and communities by enlarging the pool of available financial resources, and providing positive examples for other women. It also requires reshaping what wealth means to and for women…
RESHAPING WOMEN’S FINANCIAL POWER.
For far too long, women have had a complicated relationship with money. I know I certainly have. Whenever I used to think about money, I would also think “stress”. And I’m far from being the only one here… According to a 2023 Fidelity Investments survey, stress is the first word women use to describe their feelings about money. Meanwhile, men tend to associate finances with the word “hopeful”. Difference much?
The 2022 Ipsos study published in the Women, Money, Confidence: A Lifelong Relationship report indicates most women manage their day-to-day finances well. However, it appears they struggle with longer term financial goals such as paying down debt, retirement and emergency savings.
Faced with these challenges, redefining wealth as women also means:
– CHANGING OUR MONEY MINDSET
I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly struggled with a scarcity mindset about money. While I’ve always made it a point to budget, save and invest, it was more out of a sense of lack and fear, than a belief in abundance and purpose. It took literally changing my mind about what financial security and power really mean, to even begin my journey into financial growth. And this is more gender-based than we often want to believe… Research shows while men tend to exhibit a higher risk tolerance as related to financial decisions, women tend to prioritize financial security and be more risk-averse. These biological and psychological gender differences result in the different money mindsets exhibited by women and men.
However, changing our money mindsets as working women and moms doesn’t necessarily equate behaving like men. Rather, it means identifying our money fears and addressing them as proactively, and effectively as possible. Many of these fears come from traumas passed on from generation to generation as early as in childhood. Debunking these while renewing how we view and think about money, is an indispensable part of growth and evolution.
-DON’T JUST KNOW YOUR WORTH, EMBODY IT!
Realizing our worth as working women and moms is a lifelong journey of unlearning society’s gender value system. It’s the mental, spiritual and psychological process of shedding the burden of shame, guilt, and excessive self-sacrifice.
It’s also a matter of re-learning our values in our personal and professional life, wherever finances are concerned. At work, we may measure professional worth in terms of professional fit, personal fulfillment and salary expectations. On a personal level, it’s about educating ourselves financially in the short and long-term. It’s also about developing an investment and financial mindset rooted in a spirit of financial abundance rather than scarcity.
– BOUNDARY UP!
Last but not least, implementing strong financial boundaries is key to stepping into our financial power. Most importantly, learning to say “no” to internal or external financial pressures, in order to say “yes” to financial growth and empowerment, is crucial. This can take the form of flexible budgeting, wise investments, or strong personal limits.
Setting, and keeping, financial boundaries has certainly been an ongoing journey for me. As financial power takes on very many different forms through the various seasons of our life and work, it requires different evolving versions of ourselves as well. Awareness then is the first step to creating, adjusting and upholding effective financial boundaries.
IN CONCLUSION…
All in all, stepping into our financial power, especially at the dawn of the feminization of wealth era, is a lifelong journey. However, in light of the Great Wealth Transfer set to occur in the U.S. in the next decade, it is more relevant and important than ever. Despite its challenges, stepping into our financial power as working women and moms may just be one of the most enlightening and rewarding journeys of our lives and careers. One that holds the unique potential and power of teaching us about our worth, our power and the legitimacy of our own unique purpose.
How will you step into your financial power in this season?
In this podcast episode, I’m discussing defining, or re-defining, our vision of what it means to be a working mom by better integrating career and motherhood in 2025. Through a 7 step process, I invite listeners to engage in assessing their season of motherhood and career, master their time, embrace self-care, among other steps…
Are you ready to integrate motherhood and career this year? Listen in!
Thanks for Listening!
Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this week’s episode! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please share it by using the social media at the bottom of this post!
Also, leave me a review for the TCS podcast on Apple Podcasts !
I was recently on a trip back home to Senegal to visit my aging parents. Sandwiched in between taking care of my parents, mothering my teens from a distance, and intermittently checking my work email, I realized how much motherhood had evolved for me. I was literally mothering my aging parents, while remotely ensuring my kids were ok, and still trying to wear all the hats even while away. As I was watching my mother, I also could notice how much motherhood had changed for her as well. If you’re reading this and nodding, you may have noted how your own experiences of motherhood have changed over time as well. You may also be struggling with integrating motherhood and career as you evolve as a working mom….
Motherhood is an ever-changing journey…
One thing I’ve learned as a working mom, is that motherhood is an ever-changing journey. Never quite the same from one year to the other, one season to the other. One season, you’re changing diapers back-to-back while preparing your return to work after maternity leave. Another season, you’re worrying about your teen’s mental health, while learning to mother your own parents. Yet another, you’re dropping young adults off to college, and coming back to an empty nest. Through it all, your vision of motherhood must keep evolving, as your heart and mind adjust to the changes…
The Challenges of Integrating Motherhood and Career…
Add to this the ever-present challenges of integrating motherhood and career in today’s fast-paced world. Now more than ever it seems, the demands on parents, and on mothers in particular, are astronomical to say the least. Modern stressors such as social media, the youth mental health crisis, and unique economic challenges have put heavy pressure on parents, leading to the recent U.S. Surgeon General advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents. This is even more prevalent with evolving professional expectations in 2025, including leadership roles, as well as hybrid and remote work. Women are increasingly entering leadership roles, at a rate of 37% in 2024, up from 32% in 2015, according to Mc Kinsey & Company’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report. Women are also more likely to select remote or flexible work options, citing work-life integration, increased focus and productivity, and reduced exposure to micro-aggressions.
All of these challenges make it all the more important to re-evaluate our own kind of motherhood every so often; and reflecting on how to better integrate motherhood and career. What kind of mother am I in this season? Where am I in my life and career as related to the mom I am today? What needs to stay? What needs to go? Such are the heart-wrenching, but necessary questions, so many of us often fail to ask ourselves as we journey through motherhood as working moms.
When was the last time you re-evaluated your own vision and definition of motherhood? Have you asked yourself lately what kind of mom you see yourself as? When did you last etch in your mind, or on paper, the picture of your own brand of motherhood?
If these questions resonate with you, here are some steps to define your own vision of motherhood this year:
1. Do Your “Mommy Audit”
Just like you perform your career audit periodically, take some time to pause and perform your “mommy audit” as well. Assessing who you are as a working mom in this season of your life and career is the first step to defining (and redefining) your own vision of motherhood.
Are you in a season where your kids are smaller and your career is taking a backseat? Or are you faced with the delicate teenage years while caring for aging parents and moving into leadership roles at work? Or are you an empty nester with more time on your hands?
2. Define what matters most in motherhood and career
Based on your “mommy audit”, identify your family and work priorities in this season of your life and career. What matters most this year, quarter, month, or even week? This also requires creating boundaries around your non-negotiables, including family events, family time, and work hours.
If like me, you are raising teenagers requiring you to be more present as they gain their independence, then blocking your time off to be more present becomes crucial. This may also prompt you to work in a more focused and efficient manner so you can honor your family time.
3. Master Your Time
Time is working moms’ most precious, and most abused, commodity. Hence why guarding your time is a priority as a working mom. There are a few things you can do to protect your time:
Leverage technology: From calendar apps such as Calendly, to project management tools such as Asana, and family scheduling platforms like good ol’ Google shared calendars, are my go-to’s.
Block your time: I often say “if it’s not on my calendar, it’s not happening’. Allocating specific blocks of time for parenting, self-care, and work allows to waste less time.
Break tasks into smaller steps: Learning to break down big projects into smaller tasks allows to be more intentional and effective with your use of time.
Delegate, delegate, delegate: You can’t do it all. And why would you want to? Setting a system to delegate tasks and responsibilities at home and at work can go a long way towards freeing your time. As a bonus, research shows kids are more successful when they do chores.
4. Build a Support System
An important part of defining or re-defining your vision as a working mom in the new year is to re-evaluate your support system. It takes a village to raise kids, have a career and wear all the hats working moms do. However, the unfortunate reality is, too many working moms do not have a village to rely on. This is where learning to build your own villages comes into play:
Build your work village: Asking for support at work is not a weakness. However, this depends on the type of work environment you’re in. What does building your work village look like? It can look like advocating for increased flexibility, such as flexible or remote work opportunities. Support at work can also come in the form of mentors or sponsors, who may well understand working mothers’ challenges and help advocate for you.
Build your home village: At home, support can look like enlisting the help of your spouse, children, family, and childcare services. It can also take the form of supportive working parents’ network, who can serve as resources as well.
5. Embrace self-care
Self-care is a non-negotiable as a working mom. Whether it’s prioritizing your health through exercise, sleep and healthy eating, or scheduling “me time”, carving some time out for you is a must.
Another important aspect of self-care has to do with letting go of the “mommy guilt” eating at you every time you do something for you. Instead, choosing to shift your mindset from guilt to “doing your best” can help in the process. Lastly, don’t forget to celebrate your wins, small or big.
6. Set Your Vision
Now is the time to put all the pieces together and create a vision of your own brand of working motherhood. What milestones fit into this vision? How can they be broken into smaller, more achievable pieces? How can you align your long-term family vision to your professional goals?
7. Get Inspired by Other Women
Last but not least, get inspiration from the women around you to fuel your vision as you refine and adjust it over time. Who are the women around you who are successfully integrating their family life and work? Are there even role models on social media that you can informally get inspired by?
All in all, integrating motherhood and career looks different from one person to the next. At the end of the day, it’s really about what works for each and everyone of us. Taking small, actionable steps can help. Thriving both as a parent and as a professional is possible, after all.
In this episode, I discuss ditching traditional career goals and instead embracing your own career vision by audting your career in the past 12 months. I discuss 10 steps to start with at the beginning of 2025 to audit your career.
Listen in!
Thanks for Listening!
Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this week’s episode! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please share it by using the social media at the bottom of this post!
Also, leave me a review for the TCS podcast on Apple Podcasts !
