It was not called the “Year of The Woman” as it was in 2018, but it just may be deserving of the moniker, “Year of Firsts For Women.” This year more women ran for public office, won key seats and made historic first time ever claims in Congress and as governors.

But there are fewer women in Congress after the midterms, than in 2024.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat is the first Black governor of Georgia, and the first in the U.S. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, is the first Latina governor of Texas. Juliana Stratton won a Democratic Senate seat in Illinois and is one three Black women who will serve concurrently in the U.S. Senate. When the final votes are in from Alaska, many expect Mary Peltola to win the Democratic Senate seat to become the first female Native American in the Senate in the state.

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“Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane maintained by all female aviation mechanics!”

That could be the latest declaration as the Aviation Institute of Maintenance, America’s lagest network of aircraft maintenance technician schools, is partnering with American Airlines, United, British Airways and other sponsors, to bring more girls and women into aviation, aerospace and STEM.

Tiffini Coleman, AIM lead head instructor and alumna, has a mission bigger than any plane in the sky. “Society tells women that we are better at supporting roles. They don’t teach women that we are enough, but we have to leave old stereotypes in the past.”

The numbers of women in several levels of aviation are improving, but they are still extremely low.

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Women and men in the workplace must speak up and stand for Jane Doe in any and every reported account of sexual harassment, discrimination or sexual violence at work or work-related functions.

The brutal account enumerated in a lawsuit brought recently by Jane Doe, a Cornell University student who names seven male fraternity brothers in her accounts of sexual assault in 2024, underscores the urgency for systems in place to end sexual harassment and assault everywhere, including the workplace.

Stories of workplace sexual harassment seem as old as time, going back to Hollywood representations including the 1937 film, “Ever Since Eve,” the role reversals of Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in the 1959 blockbuster “Some Like It Hot,” the 1980 blockbuster, “9 to 5,” as well as the 2022 “She Said,” about Harvey Weinstein.      

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The glass cliff is not new. And yes, it is a very real and dangerous precipice for women leaders around the world in every industry.

Just ask Chris Bradley, an Australia-based McKinsey & Company senior partner who was removed  “from his leadership role at the firm’s research arm after he posted online comments questioning the uphill battle female executives face in the workplace.”

The McKinsey Global Institute director who has been at the firm 27 years was removed from that role—but kept his partner position—after posting on LinkedIn that the glass cliff is not real. It is “a very convenient way to always be a victim in the rain,” he posted, according to Financial Review.

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The common assumption in the workplace about trust is that you can’t trust the people around you. That needs to shift.  Trust with colleagues, leaders, clients, associates and employees must always be on the menu.

At the recent Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference 2026, Minda Harts, best-selling author, consultant, filmmaker, equity specialist and workplace communications expert, spoke with David Smith, Professor and Co-Director of the Gender and Work Initiative at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, about what trust—and the assumption of its absence—means today.

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 “The workplace is broken.”

W. Brad Johnson, founder and CEO of Workplace Allies, told a crowd at the recent Take The Lead Power Up Conference, with great certainty that how employees who are caregivers are treated must change.

Moderating the panel, “The Power of Care: Women Leading at Work and at Home,” Johnson said, “More than 73% in society identify as caregivers and we struggle with archaic norms. It is not an issue of ambition, it is a choice for self-preservation,” said the co-author with David Smith of Fair Share: How Men and Women Can Create a More Equitable Workplace Together; Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies For Women In The Workplace; Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women.

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