Women are tired.
Exhausted from often carrying disproportionate weight at home and in the workplace, navigating rising childcare costs, and too often being left out of the rooms where decisions are made. For all the progress it seems we’ve made, many of the challenges feel familiar, echoing battles fought by generations of courageous women before us.
At the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce (CWCC) State of Business Luncheon, that tension between progress and persistence was palpable. The theme, “Moving Beyond Business as Usual,” was timely and authentic to the moment.
Each speaker including Emcee Jessica Porter of Denver7 provided inspiration to rise above. The event on March 5 at the Denver Center for Performing Arts also honored Maureen McDonald of HCA HealthONE with the CWCC Chamber Champion Award, and Former Colorado State Representative Shannon Bird with the CWCC Advocacy Award.
CWCC CEO Simone D. Ross, donning a Barbie pink pinstripe suit that glistened when the light hit it just right, set the tone for the event with a powerful speech. She invited the audience to raise their hands if they had ever left the workforce at any point in their careers and to consider what it cost them: momentum, a title, income, confidence.
Looking around, most, if not all, of the hundreds of women in the room raised their hands at some point, myself included. For a moment, I felt connected, seen, and finally not alone in this fight.
Ross then walked us through her journey climbing the corporate ladder while navigating major life milestones – giving birth, earning her MBA, going through a divorce, landing her dream job, and ultimately becoming CEO of CWCC, not necessarily in that order. As a proud first-generation, college-educated Black woman and the first in her family to have all of her constitutional rights, her path hasn’t been linear. What stood out most was the through line: setbacks were part of the journey, and the timing was rarely perfect, but she persisted.
Like many women, she made it clear she wanted it all and rejected the idea that she should have to choose between personal and professional success. Still, that didn’t stop corporate environments from forcing that choice.
She pushed back directly, naming a truth that resonated across the room, “We don’t always choose to leave the workforce – work leaves us.”
Ross painted the picture even more clearly: “Women are not leaving work. Work is leaving women. When a company refuses flexibility, work is leaving her. When she’s passed over because leadership assumes she wouldn’t want the travel or the responsibility, work is leaving her.”
Her words struck a chord. If we had been in church, I would have jumped up and shouted, “Amen.” Judging by the heads nodding around the room, I wasn’t alone.
She reframed another common narrative, noting that women aren’t just hitting a glass ceiling – we’re often starting from a “broken step at the very bottom of the ladder.”
Still, the message wasn’t without hope. Ross pointed to measurable progress, noting that women now make up 29% of C-suite roles, up from 17% a decade ago. Women of color account for just 7% of that 29%.
All is not lost. For those who choose, and are able, to stay in the workforce, some employers are beginning to meet the evolving needs of their employees.
During the luncheon, a solution-oriented panel conversation was moderated by Delta Dental CEO Kelli Clifton Ogunsanya, and featured women leaders across industries: Chief People Officer Marisa Daspit of Ibotta mobile tech company, Denver International Airport Chief of Staff Maria G. Meleandez, and HCA Healthcare Chief Nursing Executive Angie Voigt. The discussion centered on how employers are opening on-site childcare facilities, embracing more flexible work schedules as employees return to in-person work, and investing in leadership development to better support long-term success.
And while some women are still pushing to access those rooms, others are choosing a different path entirely. Increasingly, women are leaving traditional workplaces to start their own businesses – at times by choice, but often out of necessity.
With unemployment rates among women, especially Black women with college degrees, at a 25-year high, entrepreneurship is not always a dream. For many, it’s a pivot for survival.
As equity efforts are scaled back and the cost of living continues to rise, women will keep making something out of nothing, not necessarily because we want to, but because we have to.
And maybe that’s why one line from Ross continues to resonate long after the luncheon ended: “Women are not DEI. They are GDP.”
This conversation hits a little too close to home for me and other accomplished women in my circle. Whether it’s through policy decisions, intentionally hiring Black women, or making more substantial investments in Black women-owned businesses, we should not ignore the “canary in the coal mine,” as noted by political science professor and longtime public policy expert Nykia Greene-Young, PhD.
Greene-Young, domestic policy coordinator at the W.E.B. DuBois Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy, explains, “Black feminist scholars have long argued that the conditions facing Black women workers reveal the health of the broader economy. In fact, economists often view rising unemployment among Black women as an early indicator of broader economic instability.”
The Women’s Chamber of Commerce event reminded us that women must continue to take action now.
