A BOOK BY BELINDA CLEMMENSEN
And yet — you keep showing up, doing the work, leading anyway. Women, Leadership, and Saving the World is for every woman who's ever felt the friction and wondered if something was wrong with her. Nothing is wrong with you.
You’re not imagining it.
The system wasn’t built for you.
WHAT NOBODY’S SAYING OUTLOUD
The exhaustion is real.
And it has a name.
The world — particularly the business world — was designed by men, for men. Not out of malice, necessarily. Just out of default. The systems we work in, the standards we're measured against, the leadership models we're handed — they were built with someone else in mind.
For women in leadership, this creates a particular kind of exhaustion. The kind that's hard to name because it doesn't show up as one big thing — it shows up as a hundred small frictions. The meeting where your idea gets credited to someone else. The performance review that calls you "too direct" — or "not direct enough." The constant calibration of how much of yourself to leave at the door.
If you've spent any time in leadership wondering why it feels harder than it should — this book is for you. It's also for anyone who leads alongside women, or wants to understand what's actually at stake when women aren't at the table.
This isn't a book about surviving a broken system.
It's about understanding it — and changing it.
WHAT SHIFTS WHEN YOU READ IT
✓ Finally have the language for what you've been experiencing — and the data to back it up
✓ See how systemic gender inequality plays out at work and at home — and how the two are connected
✓ Learn what it looks like to lead as yourself — from your values, your strengths, your actual perspective
✓ Understand the real difference between equality and equity, and why it matters for how organizations function
✓ Discover why money crises disproportionately impact women, and what that has to do with who's in the room
✓ Understand why women in leadership is the key to better decisions, more resilient organizations, and a more equitable world
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
"If you are not sure where to start and want to make the world a better place for women — and as a consequence, for all human beings — pick up this book. If not you, then who? If not now, then when?"
Jamile Cruz
Award-Winning Founder & CEO, I&D 101
"As a man and as a business owner, I think this should be required reading. I now have a WAY better understanding of how broken our current situation is, why this is hurting all of us, and how people like me can be part of the solution."
Tim Arnold
President, Leaders for Leaders · Author of Lead with And
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Belinda Clemmensen
Founder, The Women’s Leadership Intensive · Partner,
The Leadership Intensive · ICF Master Certified Coach
In 2000, Belinda co-created Paddle to a Cure — a women-led series of sea kayaking expeditions for people living with breast cancer. What she discovered changed the course of her career: women working together lead differently. That insight never left her.
Almost two decades later, she founded the Women's Leadership Intensive. Today, she serves as CEO of The Leadership Intensive — a Certified B Corp — coaching and developing leaders across industries worldwide. She is an ICF Master Certified Coach and a gold Canada Award for Excellence recipient.
Women, Leadership, and Saving the World is her debut book.
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The book is a beginning.
READY TO GO FURTHER?
If this book names something you've been carrying for a while, the Women's Leadership Intensive is where that recognition becomes action. A year-long experience for women who are ready to lead from the inside out.