Welcome to Women Rising, the destination for career women and their allies. I’m the Founder & CEO, Megan Dalla-Camina.

When I say a long time, I mean four decades. Not until I reached my early forties, after spending almost half of my life in the world’s largest organisations and power structures built by and for men, was the veil slowly lifted and could I see glimpses of the orchestration of the world — and certainly the world of work — around me. A world orchestrated to set men up for success, and to set women up to never quite fit in.

It took me even longer to be able to wrap my head around the complexities of the systems that keep women small, stuck and socially compliant. And the paradoxes of power that gaslight women into thinking that it’s all in our heads, that everything is our fault, that there’s nothing wrong or that it’s just us and we need to do better. That we have every opportunity available to us, the world is a meritocracy with an even playing field, and if we can’t succeed then, well then, that’s on us.

The micro incidents and aggressions women face every day at work and in their lives that, when we are not aware of them, go unarticulated but are felt energetically. Being talked over and interrupted in a meeting. Being asked to take the notes or get the coffee. Questioned by male, and even female, subordinates like we haven’t earnt the right to be there.

And the more blatant: questions about who takes care of the children when you’re at work. Assumptions about your inability to travel or take on a leadership role because you’re a new mum and you ‘won’t be interested’ or ‘you’re not available’ because certainly, ‘you’re not serious about your career anymore’. Intersectional biases that women of colour deal with every single day, questioning their appropriateness, ability and competence.

I could go on and on and on. We experience these things, but rarely talk about them. We internalise the slights and aggressions and add them to the layers of stories and beliefs we have about ourselves. That we’re not smart enough, savvy enough, pretty enough, good enough. That we will never fit in. That if we were just better, if we just worked harder, then everything would be fine. We’d get the job. Speak up in the meeting. Have more confidence. Balance our lives. Be the leaders we know we can be.

But what I have come to learn over decades of my own journey, as well from my research, coaching and from witnessing thousands of women’s journeys, is that it’s much more complex than that. It’s nuanced and layered and circular and hard to figure out. And for busy working women, there is barely space to breathe let alone make an enquiry into the powers and paradoxes that impact our lives every single day.