The real impact of women’s leadership goes well beyond the numbers.

In late 2024, I applied for a job that I was incredibly interested in yet also deeply unsure about. I was a journalist looking to leave the field, discouraged by the absence of a clear career path before me. 

To be frank, I didn’t meet all the criteria of the job I applied for. Plain and simple. But after almost two years of working as a reporter, I felt like I could do it. More than anything, I knew I wanted to do it. 

With both eagerness and self-doubt bubbling inside me, I remember scrolling to the bottom of the page to find the following message: 

And remember this: Research shows that men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of criteria, yet women and other marginalized folks only apply when they fit every item. If you think you could excel in this role, but don’t meet every criterion, please get in touch anyway. Tell us about yourself and what you bring to the table. 

That’s what it’s like working for a woman-owned company. Three sentences added to a job post. Simple, yet brimming with a purpose that isn’t always evident in a typical business. And, without a doubt, I never would have applied for the role I now have (and love) at Dragonfly had it not been for that memo tacked onto the end of the posting. 

Women-owned businesses now account for nearly 40% of all U.S. companies, according to the National Women’s Business Council. In recent years, their growth has outpaced that of men-owned firms, reflecting a powerful shift in entrepreneurship and ownership.

But even as women are building businesses at historic rates, traditional leadership pipelines have a ways to go. 

A 2022 report from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that women hold just 25.9% of leadership roles among federal workers in technical fields. In real numbers, that’s 16,454 women, compared with 47,167 men, and a pointed reminder that even in industries built on innovation and progress, representation at the top still lags behind.

If you work in a technical field, lead a team, hire talent, or hope to advance into leadership yourself, this number affects you.

Representation at the top influences who gets mentored, whose ideas are heard, and what “leadership potential” looks like in practice. When leadership skews heavily in one direction, opportunity often does too.

Women in leadership shape workplace culture in visible and invisible ways. The people at the top influence how decisions unfold and whether opportunity feels open or closed to those looking in. 

So let’s champion the women who lead and the work they do to make room for others at the table, long before they’re ready for a seat. 

Sometimes that looks like mentoring another woman in your field. Sometimes it looks like recommending a colleague for a new opportunity. And sometimes it’s adding three sentences to the end of a job posting.Happy International Women’s Day to all the women championing others or working their way up the ranks. And meet the women of Dragonfly Editorial!