“I guess leadership is not for me…”
I remember the first time I thought those words.
I was 18, working the late shift at a pub in the middle of winter. It was just me and one manager on duty. All the managers were men, except one woman who was being mentored for a management role. But she couldn’t be rostered on at night, on her own, with just one other staff member.
Actually, scrap that.
She couldn’t be rostered on at night with just one other female staff member.
You might assume this was about safety. Two women running a pub late at night, no security, no men around, just in case things got nasty. Reasonable assumption, but no. That wasn’t it (and that’s a very different article).
The real reason was simpler than that.
The women weren’t strong enough to move the beer barrels in the basement if the taps needed refilling.
That was it.
No muscles…no night manager role.
At the time, I didn’t think much of it. It was a part-time job while I was at uni. It didn’t feel like it would shape my career, so I filed it away and moved on.
Fast forward to 2024.
I’m mentoring a group of women in the Women at Work program, and we’re talking about why there have traditionally been so few women store managers in their organisation, a large retail business operating across Australia.
The answer?
Women weren’t strong enough to move the heavy products in the back of the store.
Therefore, they couldn’t be managers.
Regardless of how capable they were.
Regardless of their experience.
Regardless of how good they were with staff and customers.
Regardless of how much they wanted the role.
No muscles, no management… again.
This time, I noticed the pattern because now it does affect me.
It’s not just beer barrels. It’s retail stores.
And it’s not just heavy equipment. It’s late nights, work trips, inflexible hours, and meetings scheduled squarely at school pickup time.
These are the invisible barriers.
The ones that quietly shape who gets ahead, and who quietly decides, “I guess leadership isn’t for me.”
To this client’s credit, they saw the writing on the wall.
They recognised that the lack of women leaders in their stores (despite women making up a significant portion of the workforce), had nothing to do with ambition or capability.
It was structural.
It wasn’t the women. It was the system.
Invisible obstacles embedded in everyday policies, processes and assumptions about “how work gets done” were holding women back.
So they fixed it.
They introduced electronic moving equipment to handle heavy stock. And suddenly, you guessed it — no barrier.
Not just for women, but for men with bad backs, sore knees, disabilities, or a healthy aversion to the gym .
Removing invisible obstacles for women isn’t just good for women, it’s good for everyone.
When women win, we all do.
So, here’s the real question:
What policy, structure, system or unspoken norm in your organisation is quietly putting women at a disadvantage?
And how might you shift it?
If you’re not sure where to start, ask the women.