I don’t know about you, but since the election, I’ve been operating on low-grade, omnipresent rage. 

Then, earlier this month, I braced myself and watched Louis Theroux’s “Inside the Manosphere” documentary. Admittedly, I was impressed by Theroux’s ability to be curious rather than argumentative. These roughly 90 minutes underscore the power and reach of the so-called red pill bro influencers. Meanwhile, my rage kicked up a notch; my blood was boiling, and my ears were burning–figuratively and literally.

I found myself reflecting on the backslide of women’s progress. 😩

Consider these 5 equality issues women face in the US today:

• Child marriage is still legal. Most people don’t realize that child marriage is legal in 34 states. Read that again. 😤 Only 16 states have fully banned child marriage and set the minimum age at 18 with no exceptions. And four states–California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma–have no minimum age floor, meaning a child of any age can marry with parental or judicial approval. (Yes, any age!) 😡

• We lost our rights to bodily autonomy. Women lost a right they had held for 50 years. In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and more than a dozen states quickly banned abortion outright. Now, organized efforts are targeting abortion medication like Mifepristone and even contraception. This isn’t just about abortion — it’s about who controls women’s bodies (and it’s not you).

• The ERA is not the law of the land. Despite being passed by Congress in 1972 and ratified by 38 states in 2020, the ERA is not published in the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. (And no, the 14th Amendment does not guarantee women’s rights.) After more than 100 years of fighting for it, women’s constitutional rights remain legally unresolved. If you want to educate yourself and others to vote for legislators who care about this, visit the ERA Coalition.
  
• Women were forced out of the workplace. In 2025, more than 450,000 women left the U.S. workforce between January and August due to low pay, lack of flexibility, and caregiving burdens. Notably, the expiration of federal childcare subsidies was a huge contributor, erasing years of labor market gains almost overnight.
  
• The rise of the trad wife movement. Social media has amplified a movement encouraging women to abandon careers and fully subordinate themselves to husbands. These trad women naively risk future economic stability and are influencing millions of teens with this lopsided arrangement before their values are fully formed. You can hear my take on it here or read this recent article I wrote.

And it’s not just happening in our backyard. Women’s rights around the world are experiencing backlash:

• The gender economic gap is not within our reach. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report has repeatedly noted that, at the current pace, full gender parity is more than 130 years away — and in some regions, the gap is widening rather than closing.
  
• Women are losing rights to education and work. In 2021, women in Afghanistan were banned from secondary and higher education, barred from most employment, and prohibited from appearing in public without a male guardian — one of the most rapid and sweeping reversals of women’s rights in modern history.
  
• Women’s lives are not safe. In 2023, 85,000 women and girls were killed intentionally around the world by an intimate partner or family member. Further, in 54% of the world’s countries, rape is still not defined on the basis of consent, meaning a woman can be raped and the law may not recognize it as a crime.

It’s not all gloom and doom. As a wise person once said, sometimes we need to experience the darkness before we can see the light. 

Last week, I was part of the light. 

Over 200 activists, non-profit leaders, and donors–spanning cultures and generations–gathered at the Giving List Women Summit to connect, strategize, and take action for gender equality. It was exhilarating. And I couldn’t be prouder to serve as the chairperson of this inspiring and ambitious non-profit organization.

Here’s what we know for sure: leadership across all types of organizations and institutions has to change. It needs to look, act, and feel differently from what we have grown accustomed to. In the inspiring words of Giving List Women co-founder and CEO, Gwyn Lurie, this is leadership:

What is a Leader?

She understands that leadership is not an office. Or a fancy title. It’s how she shows up in the world every day.

A leader knows when to talk and when to listen; that being the loudest doesn’t make her right. 

She doesn’t just hold space; she creates it. 

She knows when she’s the expert and when she needs to seek expertise.

A leader understands that when we move beyond ‘being right,’ we find the path ‘to getting it right.’

She doesn’t see herself as a brand, but rather as an expansive thinker. A constant learner.

She understands that compromise is not necessarily a dirty word. That sometimes it’s about finding what we share. That, in compromise, we can find solutions in which we all see ourselves.

A good leader wants you to succeed. To look good. To rise. 

She knows when to follow the rules… and when to break them.

That patriarchy is not just about men.

Sometimes she leads from in front. Sometimes from behind. But she always leads with compassion. 

  We’re trading old rules for new impact. Because when she rises, the tide rises with her.

In short, when we lead with empathy and concern for everyone’s well-being, all lives improve. 

And, that’s the light-filled world I want to live in.

You’re equipt to remake leadership.