It´s time for The Collaborative Society

Is Gloria Steinem’s Diagnosis Still True Today?

When I interviewed the legendary Gloria Steinem 25 years ago in New York City for my book Motherhood as a Career Booster, she handed me a sentence that burned itself permanently into my mind:

"Today, women have equality—until their first child."

Reflecting on her life and legacy today at the news of her passing, I find myself asking the question that every leader, parent, and changemaker must confront: Is it still true?

Looking purely at the structural data, the answer is a sobering yes. The "motherhood penalty" remains remarkably persistent. Career trajectories still fracture when family life enters the frame, and traditional corporate pipelines continue to leak talent at the exact moment professional maturity intersects with parenthood.

Yet, over the last quarter-century, my own journey - both personally and professionally - has radically expanded how I view the problem. And more importantly, how we must build the solution.

The parallel worlds we are building

Since that interview in New York, I have raised two sons. Watching them grow into young men while working with leaders across industries exposed a dangerous shift in our cultural landscape.

Today, we see many women quietly building parallel worlds - organizations, networks, and lifestyles rooted deeply in their values, agency, and holistic well-being. At the same time, many men express confusion over why traditional dynamics no longer work, or why they struggle to engage, attract, or collaborate with women in the ways they used to.

The explanation is simple: Women have stopped settling for low levels of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Spiritual Intelligence (SQ).

Business - and human evolution - has outgrown transactional leadership and pure IQ. A society or organization that relies solely on metrics, dominance, and long hours without high EQ and SQ is no longer compelling or sustainable.

Why we must bring men into the room

When I realized this shift, it forced a fundamental evolution in my own work. I redesigned my leadership development programs to explicitly invite men into the process.

Why? Because we will never reach systemic equality if we frame this as a battle between sexes or cast one gender as the villain.

Creating separate, parallel worlds doesn't heal our institutions - it simply fragments them further. None of us can do this alone. If we want our children to step into a bright, resilient, and life-affirming future, we have to transform the "human operating system" together.

Real transformation requires true synergy:

• Between the Masculine & Feminine: Balancing drive, strategic structure, and goal orientation with deep empathy, intuition, values, and a holistic vision for the whole.

• Between EQ, SQ & Performance: Recognizing that emotional maturity, relational capacity, and value-driven decisions are non-negotiable requirements for future-proof organizations.

• Between Work, Life & Legacy: Re-architecting organizational structures so that career advancement and family life nourish rather than compete with one another.

From diagnosis to co-creation

Gloria Steinem provided an indispensable mirror 25 years ago. She accurately diagnosed the structural wall that women hit.

Today, our responsibility is to move beyond the diagnosis and build the bridge. Motherhood taught me that raising children develops irreplaceable leadership capacities - from radical prioritization and high resilience to deep emotional agility. But raising three sons proved to me that modern, value-led leadership is a shared human project.

If we want to change the trajectory for the next generation, we must stop asking women to adapt to outdated, rigid systems, and stop leaving men out of the evolution. It is time to create a shared, high-EQ, high-SQ leadership paradigm where everyone, including our planet, thrives.

Do you want to participate?

And if not, what could possible me more important if our children are not to pay the price?