The dangers of blaming female leaders for one woman's misstep

A recent Bloomberg Businessweek article reported on toxic cultures at woman-owned companies like Away and ThirdLove, who have been accused of treating employees unfairly. While it’s absolutely a positive shift in our society that workers feel empowered to stand up for their rights and to go public when their needs are not being met, there’s also a scary media narrative brewing. The media has equated these examples of women-owned companies as a larger warning that females can’t lead effectively. This narrative is sexist, dangerous and will only continue to perpetuate the gender gap in leadership. 

The truth is, men continue to hold 95% of the top jobs at the biggest U.S. companies, and many of those companies have been operating with toxic environments for years or even decades, with employees to scared to say a word. And many male CEOs are given the opportunity to fail over and over again—with few or no repercussions (and sometimes, they even get rewarded by "failing up" into another leadership position!).