Change the System, Not the Women: How to Redesign Power, Culture, and Leadership for True Gender Equity

By Tina Yerkes

A Fast Company Book

The Foundation for Genuine Change

Why do organizations that claim to value leadership so often treat women's leadership as a problem to be corrected rather than an asset to cultivate? When women enter systems never designed with them in mind--systems built on assumptions about availability, career continuity, and a definition of leadership modeled on the men who built them--those systems often respond with resistance. The resulting friction is consistently misdiagnosed as individual failure rather than evidence of systemic mismatch.

Dr. Tina Yerkes exposes how these foundational patterns not only penalize women's leadership but lead to organizations that actively underperform. She challenges leaders to take responsibility for the systems they sustain, honestly examine the patterns at work, and make deliberate change even when it is uncomfortable. Talented women deserve systems that recognize their capabilities rather than demanding constant adaptation to conditions that should never have been acceptable. And organizations that cling to outdated models of power and leadership ultimately limit their own performance, resilience, and ability to compete.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1639082069
• ISBN13: 9781639082063
• Release Date: November 2026
• Publisher: Fast Company Press
• Length: 240 Pages