You’re not imagining it.
The system wasn’t
built for you.
A BOOK BY BELINDA CLEMMENSEN
And yet — you keep showing up, putting in the work, and leading anyway. Women, Leadership, and Saving the World is for every woman who's ever felt that friction and was told it was just her. It’s not.
What are just beginning to say out loud…
The world — particularly the business world — was designed by men, for men. It was designed that way historically and has remained the default. The systems we work in, the standards we're measured against, the leadership models we're taught — were not built with you in mind.
For women in leadership, this creates a particular kind of extra labor and its’ exhausting. The demand to maintain the highest standards just to keep your seat at the table, the meetings where you’re not heard or your idea gets credited to someone else, the unacknowledged additional social and emotional labor that is expected of you inside and outside the workplace, the performance review that focuses on your personality instead of your actual performance.
If you've spent any time in leadership wondering why it feels harder for some than others — this book is for you. It's also for anyone who leads a diverse team or workforce, or wants to understand what's actually at stake when women and other equity deserving groups aren't at the leadership 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 authentic perspective
✓ Understand the real difference between equality and equity, and why it matters for how organizations function
✓ Discover why gender inequality is bad for people of all genders, and how to challenge common assumptions & stereotypes
✓ Understand why including women in leadership leads to better decisions, more resilient organizations and communities
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 stuck with her.
Almost two decades later, she founded the Women's Leadership Intensive— a Certified B Corp — coaching and developing leaders across industries worldwide. She is an ICF Master Certified Coach an award winning designer of leadership development programs and co-founder of The Leadership Intensive.
Women, Leadership, and Saving the World is her debut book.
GET THE BOOK
Ready to read it?
Available wherever books are sold.
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.