Our mission is to center, celebrate, and coach diverse women leaders to success.
We use proven-effective strategies to assess and develop your leadership competencies, and create systems that help you reverse engineer equity in your career without neglecting your self-care and self-advocacy.
Want to learn how you can level up your leadership Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities to advance your career without conceding your pay, power, and peace as a Black woman or woman of color?
Learn More About The KSA AcademyWhat do we mean by "Reverse Engineering Equity?"
Reverse-engineering is the act of taking apart an object or system to see how it works. This is usually done to duplicate it or make improvements. This is the exact same strategy we use to help diverse women create equity in their careers where it hasn't been historically, specifically in the areas of organizational or societal barriers, knowledge or skills gaps, and savvy coaches and mentors to help them navigate their own self-limiting mind sets.
What The Research* Says
About the unique career paths and experiences for diverse women leaders, and why reverse engineering equity is necessary
MicroAggressions
Women of color are more likely to have their expertise undermined, and experience gender and race bias that causes undue workplace stress and distractions than their non-female, non-POC peers.
Organizational Culture
Positive perceptions and acceptable characteristics of "what a leader should be, say, or do" have historically centered and privileged whiteness and maleness, creating bias against women leaders of color.
Career Path Differences
Women of color, even if they eventually attain positions of higher pay and power, tend to be promoted slower, be paid less, and have their authority undermined more than their non-female, non-POC colleagues.
Mentors & Development
Oftentimes, being "the first and only" for women of color means they may not have a mentor or network to guide their success. Likewise, women of color are underrepresented in leadership and succession management programs and are less likely to have a peer support system.
Cultural Influences
Women of color who have strong cultural influences and expectations may find these, at times, to be at odds with their goals for professional or financial advancement. These are heavily nuanced and unique to one's experiences, but also generalizable to many diverse women leaders.
Change Is Slow
Despite the stated intentions and investments of employers, DEI efforts haven't made the impact we had hoped in lack of representation and wage disparity that women experience in the workplace. We can continue to wait as the gap widens, or we can intervene on our own behalf and reverse engineer equity for ourselves.
Bias is Bias. Period.
Whether blatantly intentional, unconscious, or implicit...bias harms. Evidence of this is the underrepresentation of women and people of color in positions of power, disparity in pay by race and gender, and barriers to access to highest quality opportunities, goods, and services.
Why is it important for diverse women to have a leadership coaching program that centers them?
Unique strategies for unique experiences
Women of color are more likely to experience what Kimberle' Crenshaw coined as "intersectionality". The more systems of power you have affecting your life at the same time (sexism and racism and classism, etc.) the more advocacy and self-care strategies you may need.
" I was asked by a peer, "How does it feel to know that you were able to benefit from being a minority and a woman to advance your career ?"
- Angelina, Community College President and Research Participant
Safety is underrated
Many women of color are the "first and only" people who look like them in the room as they ascend in their careers. Having a safe and soft place to land where you can confidentially discuss your challenges and triumphs, without having to explain what is already understood, is invaluable.
"When I enter that room...my Blackness and the centrality of my values enters that room. I do not have the luxury of just being the wallflower...I also don't have the luxury of mediocrity" "
- Regina S., Community College President and Research Participant
Wait... Is it YOU holding you back?
Are those self-limiting beliefs telling you that you're not ready?
How do you know that you're telling you the truth?
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