Leading Ladies Club / International Womans day 2026
- Kym Mc Minn - Managing Director
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
International Women’s Day 2026
Last week I had the privilege of sitting on a panel of extraordinary women at the Leading Ladies Club IWD event 🙌
Real and raw accounts of running businesses.
The good.
The hard.
The slightly chaotic lives of us.
Strong women.
Women who’ve broken glass ceilings.
Women whose voices already carry in rooms.
And that matters.
But this IWD, what I want to hear loud and clear?
The women in survival mode.
The women navigating impossible systems.
The women sitting in courtrooms having their survival strategies criminalised.
The women in crisis accommodation.
The women in mental health units.
The women labelled “too complex”.
The women told their choices are the problem.
The women whose trauma gets reduced to behaviour.
These women are more powerful than any of us.
They are masters of self-advocacy.
They have been fighting to be heard for most of their lives.
They know when something isn’t safe.
They know when something isn’t right.
They can articulate their needs - clearly.
And yet I still find myself walking closely beside them, advocating for what they’ve already been screaming for - often for decades.
Not to speak over them.
Not to rescue them.
But to amplify what they are already saying.
To ensure their voice isn’t softened.
To ensure their risk isn’t minimised.
To ensure their history isn’t erased.
#BalanceTheScales isn’t just about representation at the top.
It’s about dignity, safety and fairness for the women still being dismissed in rooms where decisions are made about their lives.
Where guardians step in to take over decision-making.
Where state trustees manage their finances.
Where systems quietly decide what’s “best” for them.
Let’s absolutely celebrate the women running businesses.
The women who were given foundations of love, trust and opportunity.
But let’s stand just as firmly beside the women who have been surviving systems that were never built for them.
I want them heard.
I want them finally listened to.
Not dismissed.
Not judged for circumstances they had no control over.
Because equality isn’t an advantage for some.
It’s dignity, safety and fairness - for all.
And if we’re truly serious about balancing the scales, the voices we need to lift the highest are the ones the system has been trying to quiet for the longest.
#BalanceTheScales #InternationalWomensDay #GenderEquality #TraumaInformedCare #SystemicChange #IdentityBeforeDiagnosis
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