EPISODE · Dec 14, 2025 · 8 MIN

WORK Net/Net: So Much For Advancing at Work

from Work with Erika Ayers Badan · host Erika Ayers Badan

This headline somehow feels both shocking and completely unsurprising.The McKinsey and Lean In Women in the Workplace study is out, and the takeaway is bleak. Fewer companies care about advancing women. Even fewer care about advancing women of color. And somehow, we are now talking about an “ambition gap” like women just collectively woke up and decided to want less.Let’s be clear. Women are still paid less. Still underrepresented in the rooms that matter. Still doing most of the work at home. Still being asked to show up like nothing else changed after Covid, after MeToo, after the great return to office squeeze.On this episode of Net Net, we talk about why this moment at work feels so brittle. Why job security feels fake. Why trust in the promise of work is eroding. And why more women are quietly asking themselves what all this effort is actually for.This is not about one group winning and another losing. That zero-sum framing is part of the problem. The real work is opening the aperture. More voices. More paths. More people being given a real shot, and actually being supported when they take it.If you work with people, lead people, or care about what work is turning into right now, this one is worth your time.This is WORK Net/Net. Get full access to Mule Media at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe