I’m part of an incredibly exclusive club, one I didn’t realize was so rare when I joined. While women make up 42% of all business owners in the US, only about 0.013% of us have raised venture capital. I didn’t know that when I first raised funding but the reaction from my South Carolina community made it clear. Local media wanted to cover the story. People I barely knew reached out to congratulate me. Strangers had heard my name. I was proud, of course. But mostly, I was surprised. The amount we raised wasn’t remarkable. What was remarkable, apparently, was that I was a woman.
At first, I was flattered. Then I was frustrated. Because what that moment revealed was how much of an anomaly women-led fundraising still is. Even in 2019 and absolutely still in 2025.
The Cost of Inequality Isn’t Just Personal. It’s Structural.
Many people still think of gender inequality as a women’s issue. But it’s an economic issue. A leadership issue. A structural issue.
When a woman is held back, or when her success is harder to sustain, it affects all of us. Companies lose innovation and leadership capacity. Economies lose billions in growth potential. And future generations lose momentum and role models. Future generations, I might add, who are also born of women.
Women are expected to show up fully at work and at home. To look polished but effortless. To age gracefully but not too much. To make time for themselves while juggling everything else. Doctor appointments, school pickups, meal planning, laundry, birthday gifts, permission slips, social calendars. All of it, quietly expected.
My husband and I truly share the load. And still, I find myself defaulting to those roles. Not because I’m asked to, but because somewhere along the way, I absorbed that they were mine to carry.
We don’t talk enough about that weight. Or how many brilliant, ambitious women quietly step back—not because they lack drive, but because the math just doesn’t add up.
The Glass Staircase
We often talk about a glass ceiling, which is most certainly real. But the more I’ve experienced it, the more I believe the real challenge is the glass staircase: a winding, fragile path to leadership that demands more balance, more caution, and far too much energy from the women climbing it.
We talk about the big barriers, and rightly so. But the subtler ones often go unnoticed and unaddressed:
- Being advised not to mention you’re a mom in a pitch, in case it raises questions about your focus.
- Dressing meticulously so you’re not perceived as too young, too old, too rigid, or too soft.
- Being labeled “emotional” when you are actually invested and passionate.
- Searching for a job while visibly pregnant, knowing no one will say it, but everyone sees it.
- Staying quiet in meetings because others are louder, faster, or simply more welcomed.
- Attending “work” events that clearly weren’t designed with you in mind.
These are just a few of my own experiences. The list is much longer, and often heavier, for women of color and other underrepresented groups. The patterns show up everywhere: in pitch rooms, leadership circles, startup events, and investor meetings.
When I started Base, I was one of only two women CEOs in my peer group. That number has grown but it’s still nowhere close to half. It’s important to celebrate progress but we also need to keep pushing.
Access Changes Everything
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s this: access shapes outcomes.
The people who thrive are often those who have access to strategic conversations, capital, mentorship, decision-makers, and visibility. Women don’t just need titles, they need open doors. Because it’s those doors that lead to leadership, and eventually, the power to open more doors for others.
The good news? There’s no single path. Some take the traditional corporate route. Others build their own companies. The path matters less than proximity to opportunity.
I’ve seen it firsthand in roles many overlook, like Executive Assistants. Over the past decade, I’ve watched EAs, most of them women, become strategic operators and trusted advisors. The best of them are at the epicenter of decision-making. They see leadership dynamics up close. They connect dots others miss.
It’s a reminder that we need more fluid, accessible on-ramps to leadership. And sometimes those on-ramps start in surprising places.
Progress Doesn’t Happen in Leaps
True pay equity still feels frustratingly far away. Women in the US earn about 80 cents on the dollar compared to men. This number hasn’t meaningfully shifted in decades. At the current pace, white women will reach pay parity in about 22 years. But for women of color, it could take #until2072
That’s nearly 50 years from now.
So our team at Base has decided to act.
We have are launched the 2072 Initiative: a commitment to making support more accessible to women leaders. We’re investing in women by subsidizing 20.72% of every hour of support provided to a woman by a Base EA.
It’s not a discount. It’s a recalibration. A step toward equity. And a signal that we all have a role to play in accelerating change.
Progress Happens Inch by Inch
This initiative won’t fix everything. But progress doesn’t happen in leaps. It happens in inches. And that’s good news. It means all of us can participate.
- Leaders: Put more women on stage. Not to fill a quota, but because it will make your event better. Elevate their voices in panels, keynotes, internal meetings. Visibility compounds.
- Managers: Recommend women for strategic projects. Encourage them to present, lead, and challenge assumptions. Again, not because you’re “supposed to”, but because it will make your projects better.
- Colleagues: Redirect credit when it’s misassigned. When someone gets interrupted, bring the conversation back to them by name.
- Women: Introduce great women in your network to other great women. Share opportunities. Celebrate out loud.
- Allies: Be intentional about the spaces you create. Not every connection needs to happen over whiskey, golf, or late-night drinks.
- Everyone: Ask who’s missing. Ask why. And then take one step, however small, to help someone else forward.
We don’t need perfection. We need motion, inch by inch.
2072 is still far away. But if we want to reach equity by then, we have to start building differently now. One step at a time, widening and strengthening the staircase for everyone climbing behind us.
#until2072
