Ella Robertson McKay oversees the One Young World’s global programmes, and international events including the annual summit, which this year takes place in Cape Town between 3-6 November. The charity connects and supports 20,000 young leaders from over 190 countries. She is a TedX speaker and also co-author of How To Make A Difference: The Definitive Guide To Activism (Hachette 2019). She has also written for Fortune and The Times. Here, she speaks to Andrea Thompson, former editor-in-chief of Marie Claire UK, about championing women and never underestimating your influence…

How did you become a leader in the charity sector?

I fell into working at One Young World by accident after interning at the charity in 2009, the year it was founded, while I was at university studying law. It was a small team with huge ambitions, and I loved the energy of building something from the ground up.

When I graduated in 2011, I gave up my training contract at a magic circle law firm, rolled up my sleeves and started working there full time. Every year the organisation grew, the community grew, and so did my role. I’ve never really felt the need to leave because I’ve never stopped learning.

What excites you about work?

After 17 years we’re still growing. Alongside my role as Global Managing Director, I’m now also Executive Director of One Young World US, where I’m focussing on our philanthropy network, and connecting with new people and commercial partners who want to invest in the next generation of leaders. This is a particularly exciting year because the One Young World summit will take place in South Africa. It will be the most international event ever hosted on the African continent and marks the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, commemorating the role young people have played in shaping South Africa’s history. Youth unemployment is a global crisis right now. My hope is that we can work with our community this year to find solutions.

What have been the highs and lows?

The highlight is easy: standing in an arena each year with over 2,000 young leaders from more than 190 countries and seeing what this community has become and the life-changing work the young people are doing each day. It’s also great to be able to host an annual conference where these young people get to be inspired by global trailblazers from Emma Watson and Cher to Dame Jane Goodall and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The low point was undoubtedly COVID. As an organisation whose model relies on gathering people from around the world face to face to inspire one another, lockdown was really rough. Overnight we had to rethink everything. Looking back, though, it made us a far more resilient and creative organisation, and we launched a fund for young leaders on the front lines of the pandemic which I’m still very proud of. Since then we have granted more than $3,000,000 to young people.

You’ve worked with heads of state, celebrities, Nobel laureates, and influential figures from business and civil society - how do you ensure you are genuinely influencing change?

One Young World has taught me that the world is built on relationships, not transactions. Of course you need to be focused on the mission, but it’s important to remember that people are people. Presidents care about what their spouse thinks; CEOs are proud parents; Nobel Peace Prize laureates have hobbies they would rather talk about than their accomplishments. All people want to be seen as more than their job title.

Finally, I try to treat everyone exactly the same. Whether someone is a volunteer, a cleaner, or a Head of State, courtesy is so important. It’s the right thing to do, but it’s also one of the wonderful things about One Young World… you never know if the young delegate you met over coffee will go on to become the next leader of a huge corporation or country.

How do you deal with negativity?

Thoughtful criticism makes organisations better, and we’ve changed plenty of things over the years because people have challenged us constructively. Cynicism, on the other hand, is easy and rarely useful. It’s very easy to sit on social media and be snarky about people trying to make a difference. It’s much harder to actually get out there and do the work.

I’ve always loved Theodore Roosevelt’s idea that “the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” I’d much rather spend my time supporting people who are out there trying to solve problems than responding to people throwing peanuts from the sidelines. When you can point to real, measurable impact statistics, the snark tends to get pretty quiet.

Who are your female business mentors?

I’m very lucky to have worked with Leena Nair, the current CEO of Chanel for more than a decade, first through her role at Unilever and today through our ongoing partnership with Chanel and the Chanel Foundation. What I admire most about Leena is her optimism. She never seems to complain about the scale of the challenge in front of her; she simply gets on with the job and focuses on making as much impact as she can in whatever role she’s in.

As co-author of How to Make a Difference, a practical guide to activism, what advice would you give women about small steps they can take to make a difference?

Don’t feel you have to become someone else to make a difference, your own skills are probably your greatest contribution.

The most effective activists I’ve met are the ones who apply the skills they already have to the causes they care about. You don’t need to become a marine biologist to help protect the oceans. If you’re a chef, host a fundraising supper. Mentoring a teenager, running a fundraiser, or serving on a local committee all count too.

Finally, don’t wait until you have endless free time. Give the time you can, with the skills you have, to the causes you care about. Small contributions, made consistently over many years, often achieve far more than one grand gesture or stunt.

What’s your message to the The Female Lead community?

Don’t underestimate your influence. You don’t have to have millions of followers, hold public office or run a global organisation to change someone’s life. The way you lead your team, support your friends and raise your children all hold tremendous power.

I’d also encourage women to champion one another across generations. Too often, both younger and older women are overlooked in different ways, and we all lose out as a result. One of my favourite quotes is from Kofi Annan: “You are never too young to lead, and you are never too old to learn.” I think we’d all benefit from living that a little more.

The annual One Young World Summit takes place in Cape Town between 3-6 November. If you would like to know more about attendance, company sponsorship or speaking opportunities visit https://www.oneyoungworld.com/

ADHD is often thought of as a problem with attention, but that’s not really what it is. At its core, it’s a difference in executive function – the brain’s system for things like starting tasks, manag…

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ADHD is often thought of as a problem with attention, but that’s not really what it is. At its core, it’s a difference in executive function – the brain’s system for things like starting tasks, managing time, regulating emotions and prioritising workload. And for women, those differences often go unnoticed, hidden behind years of masking and trying to appear like we’re coping.

ADHD coach Tamsin Morris unpacks how traits like procrastination, perfectionism, time blindness and rejection sensitivity often show up differently in women. She explains why so many of us miss the signs, what masking really costs, and how understanding the way your brain works can make life feel a little easier.

Take The Lead is all about women (and allies!) and our mission is to bring you interesting, informative and uplifting stories that keep you in the loop with what’s happening in the world.

This week, we hit the red carpet for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, where we spoke to Zendaya and Tom Holland about what it really means to be a “friendly neighbourhood” hero. Their answers, given separately just minutes apart, were surprisingly similar and a lovely reminder that making your community a better place can start by just reaching out to people.

We’re also looking at two positive developments in women’s health: more than 300,000 women have now accessed free emergency contraception through NHS pharmacies in England, and researchers have developed a new breast cancer risk tool that could help identify more younger women who need earlier screening.

Across our channels, we’ll continue sharing the latest stories, research and conversations affecting women.

Enjoy, share with your friends, and let us know what you think!

The Female Lead Team

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We’re talking about…

💊 More women can now get free emergency contraception – More than 300,000 women have already accessed free emergency contraception through NHS pharmacies in England since the service launched. Instead of needing a GP appointment or prescription, women can now get the morning-after pill directly from participating pharmacies, making it much quicker to access within the short window when it's most effective. Campaigners say the change removes barriers to reproductive healthcare and gives women faster, easier access when they need it most.

🩺 New breast cancer risk tool hopes to spot more women earlier - Researchers at the University of Cambridge say current guidelines miss around 95% of women under 50 who will develop breast cancer because they rely too heavily on having a family history of breast cancer. A new model, which also looks at genetics, lifestyle and reproductive history, identified eight times more women at higher risk. Researchers hope it could eventually lead to earlier screening and diagnosis.

Inspire me…

ADHD is not a deficit of attention, as the name suggests. It is, at its heart, a difference in executive function, which is the brain’s management system. So things like starting tasks, sensing time, planning, regulating emotion, and deciding what matters most.

In an ADHD brain and AuDHD brain - AuDHD is a non-clinical term used to describe individuals who live with the co-occurrence of both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - that system isn’t rigid, so it can be brilliant one hour, and completely unreachable the next. The attention is there, but it just doesn’t always go where it’s told.

Read the full article here

Final thought…

We couldn’t share our interview with Zendaya and not follow it up with our chat with Tom Holland… especially when he is literally talking about her.

We’re also obsessed with the fact that Tom’s advice on channeling your inner ‘friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man’ is something he’s learnt from Z. 🥹

We love them!

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By Tamsin Morris, ADHD Life Coach

ADHD is not a deficit of attention, as the name suggests. It is, at its heart, a difference in executive function, which is the brain’s management system. So things like starting tasks, sensing time, planning, regulating emotion, and deciding what matters most.

In an ADHD brain and AuDHD brain - AuDHD is a non-clinical term used to describe individuals who live with the co-occurrence of both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - that system isn’t rigid, so it can be brilliant one hour, and completely unreachable the next. The attention is there, but it just doesn’t always go where it’s told.

Most neurodivergent people know about some common themes, widely shared on social media and talked about in podcasts:

Procrastination, which isn’t a motivation problem but an initiation one because the ADHD brain runs on interest and urgency, not importance.

Perfectionism, which feeds into procrastination because of that fear of not getting things right

Time blindness, where time exists only as now and not now, so a deadline stays comfortably distant until it floods in as panic.

And Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), where a mild comment or flat reply can feel more like a slap in the face as the nervous system registers possible rejection as danger.

But here’s how these same things can look in women. Because from a young age, girls learn early that being “difficult” carries a cost. We’re praised for being good, quiet, helpful, and easy. So when our brains run differently, we learn to act and we are very good at it.

Our procrastination hides behind all-nighters and quietly cancelled plans. We smile and say “I work best under pressure” while the not-starting gives us anxiety, and nobody ever sees those hours where you can’t move, which come before the frantic ones where you manage to hit a deadline.

Our perfectionism polishes, over-prepares and triple-checks. If it’s flawless, nobody can criticise it, and nobody can catch us out, especially because we are women and we have to work twice as hard in most industries to become equals. And the fear of doing it imperfectly quietly feeds the procrastination that started the loop.

Our time blindness gets buried under elaborate compensation: arriving stupidly early, setting nine alarms, panicking because two hours somehow evaporated. Nobody sees the scramble - they see a woman who has it together, because we have to behave like that.

And our RSD, in a world that raised us to be likeable, becomes people-pleasing. We say “no problem at all” while replaying the moment for three days. It isn’t a personality quirk. For many of us it’s RSD wearing a cardigan.

There’s a name for all of this hiding - it’s called Masking.

The bright “I’m fine!” when you’re running on empty. The laugh that arrives half a second late, because you were watching to see when laughing was expected. Every mask is an executive function gap with a costume on, and it’s why so many of us are missed for decades. Our restlessness became anxiety, our struggle became a performance of coping, and the better we masked, the less help we were offered. We called ourselves the harsh words instead. Lazy. Disorganised. Too sensitive.

Related articles

And masking is not effortless. It’s real cognitive labour, humming behind everything else you do. It’s why a nice lunch can flatten you, why you hold it together all day then come apart when your front door closes. You haven’t failed at socialising. You’ve just finished a huge work shift.

So where does it ease?

It’s too big a thing to rip that mask off at once, but the first thing to do is notice it. For one day, register the moments you’re performing.

From there, the kindest changes are quiet ones.

Build in recovery time on purpose: nothing demanding behind a socialising afternoon.

Move what you can out of your head: a calendar, one list, alarms with buffers, because executive functions work better with scaffolding than willpower.

Let good enough be a finish line, not a failure.

When a comment knocks you sideways, name it gently and say, “This is the dysphoria, not the truth”.

And most importantly, find one place, one person, one hour where that mask can slip. Being met as yourself is how you remember there’s a self in there to be met.

And if you’re reading this without a diagnosis, thinking but this is just… me, that recognition is worth taking seriously. Plenty of us started exactly here.

A small thing to sit with this week:

Where do you feel most like yourself, and where do you feel most like you’re performing?

Just notice. That noticing is where it begins.

After a career as a TV Producer, Tamsin Morris became an ADHD coach, supporting individuals in developing personalized strategies to navigate the unique challenges associated with Adult ADHD.

For more information

The headlines in July have felt like they’ve been a bit dominated by men, whether it be the footballers in the World Cup, AI CEOs making more concerning decisions, ANOTHER new UK Prime Minister, or t…

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The headlines in July have felt like they’ve been a bit dominated by men, whether it be the footballers in the World Cup, AI CEOs making more concerning decisions, ANOTHER new UK Prime Minister, or the Tate brothers being rightfully arrested. It has felt a bit like ‘and what about the women?’. Well, we’ve got you covered with some of the brilliant things women have been doing in July.

Across science, sport, politics, health, and culture, women have been driving progress, and we’ve pulled together some of our favourites for you here.

Consider this your monthly good news reminder.

Kenyan women are using drones to tackle poaching

Women across Africa are helping change the landscape of conservation. Team Owl is a group of six Kenyan female rangers trained as drone pilots in Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project. This is a vital elephant corridor linking Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks. Until now, rangers have had to mostly rely on doing patrols on foot and in vehicles, but by using the drones, teams are able to support rescues, see illegal activity, and respond faster. The women say that they’re proud of their work; not only are they able to contribute to conservation efforts in a part of the world that desperately needs it, but Florence Mwakio, one of the drone pilots, said it “made us realise that there’s truly no job a woman cannot do”.

‘Spirit of the Kerry Women’ sculpture unveiled in Ireland

A new statue has been unveiled in Tralee, Ireland, commemorating the role played by women in Kerry during the revolutionary period in Ireland. The sculpture, which depicts a woman in uniform raising the Irish flag, is the first of its kind in the country and was created by female award-winning sculptor Elizabeth O’Kane.

Cllr Angie Baily Mayor of Tralee was quoted as saying, “Sadly, for too long, the story of these women during this period was sidelined and ignored and I believe that this sculpture will encourage new engagement with the remarkable role of the women of Kerry during this formative and turbulent time.”

Ultra-runner Sophie Woods set to become “fastest person on earth”

Ultra-runner and New Zealand native Sophie Woods is currently on track to break the record for the fastest known time ever through the treacherous Alpine pass of Via Alpina. The course spans 2,000 kilometres (roughly 1,250 miles), along with 120,000 meters (393,700 feet) of ascent.

The current record is held by runner Jack Catterall in August of 2024; Tessa Caspers set the fastest women’s time for the route at 38 days and 2 hours.

Sophie is looking likely to beat both records. No woman has ever held the outright record. You can follow her journey HERE.

Broadcasters asked to change how they film female athletes

A new 23-page document has been released encouraging broadcasters to rethink the way women are filmed during competitions after years of athletes speaking out about coverage that leaves them feeling exposed, objectified, and distracted.

The guidance asks camera crews to avoid lingering close-ups on specific body parts, low-angle shots from behind or below, and unnecessary slow-motion replays that don’t add anything to viewers’ understanding of the sport.

Too often, coverage has treated women athletes as bodies first and competitors second. The movement is about making sure the focus is where it should be: on their talent, dedication, and achievements.

Breakthrough Endometriosis tests - cutting wait time from years to weeks

For many people with endometriosis, getting a diagnosis can take more than nine years. However, two NEW non-invasive tests are set to be introduced on the NHS, which will help doctors identify the condition much sooner.

One test uses a saliva sample, and the other measures electrical signals in the gut using sensors placed on the abdomen, with results available in around 45 minutes.

NICE have said that this development could help cut diagnosis times from years to just weeks!

History was made with the First-Ever Pro softball broadcast

This month, the AUSL (Athletes Unlimited Softball League) made softball history with the first-ever professional softball game to be televised on broadcast TV by ESPN. The game itself became the most-watched professional game of softball ever. The championship game between the Utah Talons and Chicago Bandits averaged 732,000 viewers. Jon Patricof, CEO and co-founder of Athletes Unlimited, said there were 25 sold-out games, while league-wide attendance steadily increased into the second half of the season; AUSL merchandise sales were up 110% in 2026; and the league’s social accounts gained nearly 450,000 followers amid large-scale growth in overall impressions. All this proves is that there IS and always will be a demand for women’s sports.

This is your reminder that women are driving SO much of the progress happening around us, and sometimes, even when the news might not seem like it, things can change for the better. Share this with friends, family, or anyone who could use a good news reminder.

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And if you’ve got stories of your own - from your community, your industry, or anywhere in the world - send them our way. We might include them in next month’s round-up. The news headlines tend to amplify the worst, but we’re just as committed to documenting the better.

The first season of Heartstopper came to our screens in 2022, bringing Alice Oseman’s beloved webcomic series to life. Four years later, after six books (which have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, including around 1.3 million in the UK), three Netflix seasons and countless devoted fans, the story came to an end with Heartstopper Forever, a feature-length finale released on 17 July 2026.

Since its debut, the show has been praised as “one of the most important LGBTQ+ shows ever made”, described as “a lifeline for many”, and celebrated for the “varied and positive queer representation” in Oseman’s work, which has brought LGBTQIA+ people “so much joy”.

Whilst Heartstopper never shied away from difficult subjects, including self-harm, mental health, disordered eating and the rollback of trans rights in the UK, it has become best known as a heartwarming coming-of-age story that prioritises queer joy.

It’s something Oseman has spoken about being particularly important to her. Speaking at Alexandra Palace, she said: “It was always my intention with Heartstopper to find the middle line, the balancing point, between showing these issues in a realistic way while also keeping that tone of, like, ‘It’s going to be OK and things will work out.’”

As the cast gathered for the premiere of Heartstopper Forever, we asked them one final question: what do they hope the legacy of Heartstopper will be 10 years from now?

Kit Connor

“It’s hard to explain because it’s been such a huge part of my life and has taught me so much and sort of allowed me to find out so much about myself. But I hope that the legacy is one of making people feel safe and loved and comfortable and supported, just as it has done for me.”

Joe Locke

“Oh, I just want people to still be watching it and it still have this positive impact. And if it carries on doing that, then I’d be very happy.”

Alice Oseman

“I would love Heartstopper to allow there to be more things like Heartstopper being made. I think the success of Heartstopper was such a surprise to everyone, but hopefully in the future people who are commissioning shows, for example, will be able to look at Heartstopper and say, ‘Hey, that actually did really well, let’s do another queer show.’”

Corinna Brown

“I would like this show to be the comfort show of so many queer people and so many people in fact, in general.”

Kizzy Edgell

“I would love people to still be watching it, first off. I think it holds up and I think it will stand the test of time, and that’d be really nice if young people still discover Heartstopper on their own and find some sense of hope in it.”

Fisayo Akinde

“One, there’s always a place to go. There’s always a person to go to. There will always be help

at hand. Always. And also that it does get better.”

Nima Taleghani

“That it was a trailblazer. That it wasn’t a flash in the pan. That things keep coming after and build on it and build on it and build on it.

Tobie Donovan

“You know, I asked everybody this question on set because I thought it was interesting. I know the overriding answer was that everyone just has the same love that they have for it today, and feels that same feeling that all the fans feel when they watch it and that we felt while making it. it, which is just how special of a thing it is. And I do think that will happen.”

Darragh Hand

“I would hope they look back on the show and see it as what it is, which is the first of its kind that really platforms and creates a safe space for anyone. Whatever your orientation may be. And I think it already is that to some degree, because I don’t think there’s any other show that does that. Or if they do, it’s along with all the challenges but what I love about Heartstopper is that it just allows these kids to be kids and queer and allows the joy.”

Rhea Norwood

“I hope it remains that it’s a joyful, queer show. I think it’s going to be universal for many generations to come because regardless of what happens with social media and the way that it makes it current in contemporary culture, I think the themes of identity and love and loss are so universal. So I hope that it remains that I think everyone can find comfort in this queer joy.”

Leila Khan

“Celebration. I think Heartstopper is all about celebrating even during the hard times. So, if there is another show in ten years time, just make sure that we’re focusing on the good.”

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By Freja Love

After watching Jess Davies’ BBC documentary Hunting the Spyscammers, I found myself somewhere in the Venn diagram of paranoia, anger and disgust. To be honest I felt straight-up depressed.

As if women need another way to be violated. (I’m looking at you Meta glasses and generative AI 👀)

Hunting the Spyscammers investigates the hidden world of non-consensual hidden-camera abuse. It’s a subject Jess knows all too well because she’s a victim herself.

“When it comes to online harms, it can often be brushed off as, like, not that serious, not that deep. But as a victim of image abuse myself, and someone who’s campaigned in this space, it really is that deep.”

Jess was a student living in halls when a man she was dating photographed her sleeping naked and shared the image in a group chat.

“I have never, ever taken a fully nude photo that showed everything. Never one that I’ve consented to. That is the only image of me that exists like that. And that feels so incredibly violating, because that choice was taken away from me. You made that decision when I couldn’t consent.”

Voyeurism isn’t just inappropriate behaviour. Under section 67 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it can be a criminal offence to secretly observe, record or install equipment to film someone carrying out a private act without their consent for sexual gratification.

A private act includes situations where someone would reasonably expect privacy, such as getting dressed, showering, using the toilet or having sex.

In other words, secretly placing a camera in a bedroom or bathroom isn’t something that should be brushed off as a relationship issue or domestic disagreement. It can be a serious criminal offence.

It’s easy to dismiss hidden cameras as something out of James Bond or even an internet horror story but the reality is far more ordinary.

According to the charity, Refuge there has been a 78% rise in technology-facilitated abuse referrals.

Welsh Women’s Aid says the true scale of hidden-camera abuse is impossible to measure because many victims never even realise they’ve been filmed.

After watching the documentary I find these statistics very easy to believe.

It’s terrifying how easy it is to buy the technology needed to secretly record someone in an intimate setting. It’s even more terrifying how easy it is to hide.

As we chat, Jess starts pulling out examples.

A plug.

A coat hook.

A water bottle.

Each containing a hidden camera.

“It works exactly like an everyday plug.”

“And the clothes hook. I would never think to look for that.”

My immediate thought is: this really could happen to anyone, however careful you are.

Jess is careful to stress that the documentary wasn’t made to frighten women or place yet more responsibility on us to protect ourselves.

But she also admits that “it’s difficult not to feel paranoid.”

Since making the film, she now keeps a cover over her laptop camera whenever she’s not using it.

She even asked a security expert on This Morning whether she should check for hidden cameras whenever she stays in rented accommodation with friends.

While he was reluctant to tell people they should be doing it every time, he admitted that taking five minutes to have a quick look wouldn’t hurt.

“We all use public bathrooms. We all go round our friends’ houses. We all stay in hotels,” Jess says. “We can’t just say, ‘Don’t leave the house. Don’t go to the toilet.’”

Like millions of women, I’ve grown up internalising countless safety measures. text when you get home, keep your keys between your fingers, stay in well-lit areas, keep an eye on your drink. It shouldn’t be our responsibility, but they’re precautions many of us take anyway.

I never imagined that list might one day include checking a bedroom or bathroom for hidden cameras. That feels borderline dystopian.

One of the documentary’s most shocking revelations is that the perpetrators aren’t always strangers. Sometimes they’re filming the people closest to them.

“It all disturbed me. But to see these people saying things like, ‘I’ve taken betraying my wife to another level by trading the livestream’... they knew exactly what they were doing.”

“They were so casually discussing, ‘I started filming my sister’, ‘unaware wife’, ‘sleeping girls exposed’. If you’re sleeping next to someone, that’s probably somebody you know intimately.”

It’s almost too horrible to imagine.

But it’s also exactly why Jess wants to show that this isn’t a niche issue. It can happen to anyone and the people responsible aren’t shadowy internet villains hiding in basements.

“These are everyday people. They exist amongst us. Whether that’s in the workplace, whether that’s at home having dinner with your partner, your brother…”

I’m astonished to learn that many of the men sharing this footage didn’t believe they were doing anything wrong.

According to them, if the victim never found out, then no harm had been done.

It’s difficult to comprehend that level of entitlement, Jess and I agree.

How can someone believe there’s no harm in secretly filming another person changing a sanitary pad, using the toilet or walking around their own home naked?

It’s such a profound betrayal of trust.

Jess has spent years investigating abuse against women, from AI deepfakes to image-based abuse and she’s come to an unsettling conclusion:

“I think the fact that this content isn’t consensual is what drives a lot of it.”

She believes an internet constantly pushing people towards more extreme material has helped create an environment where violating someone else’s consent becomes part of the appeal.

“There’s so much content out there now that people are searching for more extreme content. And, as with the internet, you’re always going to find it.”

Jess isn’t under any illusion that one documentary is going to solve the problem.

Technology will keep developing. What we need to look at, she says, is whether we’re asking enough questions before we unleash it.

“We have to be creating technology with safety by design, rather than trying to put the genie back in the bottle once the damage is done.”

Her hope is that the documentary starts a wider conversation about consent, accountability and whether devices designed to secretly record people should really be this easy to buy.

She’s also realistic about where enforcement should focus.

Online communities dedicated to sharing this material aren’t going to disappear overnight. But making them harder to find matters.

“If you have to jump through a VPN, if you have to be invited into these groups that keep getting shut down, then you know what you’re doing isn’t right. It just makes it that bit harder to access.”

The documentary is fascinating and I would highly recommend that you watch it if you haven’t already but I can’t help thinking that this is another burden women shouldn’t have to carry. Another way our privacy can be stolen.

And yet, pretending it isn’t happening won’t make it disappear.

Jess agrees.

“As with so many things, until legislation and societal culture catch up, sometimes you have to put your own safeguards in place.”

Watch some of our interview with Jess:

Hunting the Spycammers is available to watch on the BBC's YouTube channels and BBC iPlayer.

Have you ever avoided opening a pension statement because it felt too complicated? Scrolled past an article about investing because it felt like it was written for someone else? Or promised yourself you’d get organised with your money ‘when things calm down’?

You’re not alone – and you’re not failing.

What I’ve discovered from working with women at pivotal moment in their lives is this; financial confidence doesn’t come from having more money. It comes from understanding what you have, knowing where you’re heading, and having a plan to get there. You don’t need a finance degree or hours of free time. You need a starting point. So, here are seven steps that will help you build stronger financial foundations and feel genuinely more in control.

1. Know what you have (and what you owe)

You can’t make good decisions if you don’t know where you stand. Start with a simple snapshot: list your bank accounts, savings, investments, pensions, mortgages, loans and credit cards, with balances and outstanding amounts.

Many of us put this off because we’re worried about what we’ll find. But knowledge is power. Understanding your starting point, even if it’s not what you’d hoped, is the first step towards changing it.

2. Build an emergency fund

Life rarely goes exactly to plan. A boiler breaks. A job changes. A relationship ends. An emergency fund turns a crisis into an inconvenience.

Aim for three to six months of essential expenses in accessible savings. This means that each of our emergency funds is likely to look a bit different, depending on our monthly costs. If you’re starting from scratch and saving that amount feels like a lot, just start small – even £50 or £100 a month adds up meaningfully over time. The goal isn’t to get rich. It’s to give yourself options and avoid expensive borrowing when life catches you off guard.

3. Don’t ignore your pension

I know, pensions feel distant, confusing and less urgent than everything else competing for your attention. I love understanding the neuroscience behind what we do and so, unsurprisingly, there’s a reason why we think like this. Our brains are wired to prioritise immediate rewards over future ones. Retirement feels abstract; this week’s to-do list feels urgent. But honestly, your future self will thank you for paying attention now.

This is so important to prioritise. Women retire with significantly smaller pension pots than men, largely due to career breaks, part-time working and the gender pay gap. Check what you’re contributing, whether your employer matches contributions (and whether you’re taking full advantage), and where your pension is invested (many women miss out on investment returns here). A pension isn’t just a financial product. It’s future freedom.

4. Make sure you’re protected

We focus a lot on building wealth, but protecting what we’ve built matters just as much. Ask yourself honestly: if your income stopped tomorrow due to illness or injury, what would happen? If you have a partner and something happened to them, what would this loss of income now and for the future mean for you and your family?

Depending on your situation, protection might mean life insurance, income protection or critical illness cover. If you have children, a mortgage or people who depend on you financially, this deserves a proper look. Having the right cover in place provides genuine peace of mind – and the difference it makes when it’s needed can be life-changing.

5. Set goals that actually matter to you

So often women can focus on what they think they should be doing with their money instead of asking a much more important question: what kind of life do I want my money to support?

What does a good life look like for you? It sounds simple, but for many women who’ve spent years focused on everyone else’s needs, it takes moment to answer.

Money is a tool, not a destination. Perhaps you want to reduce your hours, travel more, start a business, support your children or retire comfortably. Your goals are personal, and your financial plan should reflect them. Once you’re clear on what you’re working towards, financial decisions become far easier, because there’s a purpose behind them.

6. Put your money to work

Saving is important, but leaving large amounts of money sitting in cash over the long term may not be enough. Inflation quietly erodes purchasing power – what feels comfortable today may buy significantly less in ten years (£100 today may buy you a basket of groceries and whilst it will still be £100 in 10 years’ time, it may only buy you half a basket of groceries because the cost of everything has increased).

For longer-term goals, investing can help your money grow over time. You don’t need to be wealthy to invest, and you don’t need to wait for the ‘perfect moment.’ Start small, understand your goals and timescales, and get comfortable with the idea that some risk is part of the process.

The value of investments can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than you invested.

7. Review your finances regularly

Getting organised with your money isn’t a one-off task. Life changes, careers shift, relationships begin and end, priorities evolve. Set aside time at least once a year to review your savings, pensions, investments and goals.

The women I’ve worked with who feel most confident about their finances aren’t always the wealthiest. They’re the ones who check in regularly, celebrate their progress and adjust when life moves on.

The bottom line

Getting your financial house in order isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress. Small, consistent actions can genuinely transform your financial future – you don’t need to tackle everything at once.

Financial confidence comes from understanding enough to make decisions that support the life you want to live. Most of us think that once we have the confidence we’ll take the action. But research shows us we need to reverse this thought process: action leads to experience. Experience leads to confidence. And confidence leads to more action. So my biggest encouragement is to make a start today!

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute personal financial advice.

Sarah Roughsedge is an award-winning Chartered Financial Planner and founder of Eva Wealth Management for Women. She has spent over a decade helping women navigate life’s biggest financial transitions – from divorce and bereavement to career change and retirement – and is the founder of MyWealthVault and author of Smart Money Strong Women.

Burnout doesn’t always look like breaking down. Sometimes it looks like being the person everyone relies on, the one who remembers everything, keeps life running smoothly and somehow always gets it a…

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Burnout doesn’t always look like breaking down. Sometimes it looks like being the person everyone relies on, the one who remembers everything, keeps life running smoothly and somehow always gets it all done. But being capable can come at the cost of your own wellbeing.

Somatic movement educator and author Nahid de Belgeonne explores why burnout can be so difficult to recognise in women who appear to be thriving. She unpacks the hidden mental and emotional load that so many women carry, the reason our bodies adapt to constant responsibility, and the small adjustments that can help us reconnect with ourselves before exhaustion takes over. It could even make you see your own “coping” in a completely different way.

Read the full article below.

Welcome back to Take The Lead, the fortnightly newsletter from The Female Lead.

Here’s a roundup of the articles you loved this month.

Could talking about death could help us live more fully? End-of-life doula Dr Emma Clare shares the lessons she's learned from supporting people at the end of their lives, challenging our biggest misconceptions about death and grief. She also reveals the surprisingly common regrets people share at the end of their lives, and what they can teach the rest of us.

If you've ever found yourself stressing about not getting enough sleep, sleep specialist Dr Stephanie Romiszewski explains why many of us have overcomplicated sleep, unpacks the unique challenges women face, and shares the science-backed advice she wishes more people knew.

Another article that caught your attention this month came from June Angelides MBE, who argues that ambition doesn't have to mean saying yes to everything. Drawing on her own experience of building a successful portfolio career, she shares why protecting your energy, time and value is just as important as chasing the next opportunity.

Enjoy this issue, share it if you like it, and reply directly to let us know what you think.

You can also catch up on our most recent full newsletter here.

The Female Lead Team

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The Female Lead is a charity on a mission to empower women.

In the last 8 years, we have given access to books and teaching materials to 2.5 million students in 25,000 schools around the world. We carry out research that reframes our understanding of women’s experience, such as our Fulfilment Findersurvey which reveals what matters most to women at different life stages. It has now been completed by 150,000 women globally.

We can’t run the charity without your support.

For just £3.50 a month or £25 a year, you can make a huge difference.

Your donations allow us to continue to provide teaching resources and education to girls and women around the world, conduct groundbreaking research, and share science and stories online.

By pledging to make a donation, you get a host of other benefits like:

• Access to our full archive of content on everything from advice from CEOs, to early menopause, to the brain impact of the mental load

• Get the first look at our research reports busting myths around women

• A virtual supporter badge to share and display online

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By Dr Emma Clare

People often assume my work is all about death. It isn’t. It’s about living as fully as possible until the very end.

I’m the CEO of End of Life Doula UK, and I support people who are dying, alongside the people important to them. The role of an end of life doula - also referred to as a death doula - is non-medical. We sit somewhere between professional services and the community, helping people navigate practical decisions around their care while providing emotional, social and spiritual support. We advocate for what matters most to someone, helping them have the death – and more importantly, the life – that feels true to them.

I never planned to become an end of life doula. I studied psychology at university and took a job in domiciliary care while I was training. Nobody mentioned that many of the people I’d be visiting would be in the last weeks of their lives. I thought it would be heartbreaking. Instead, I found myself drawn to those moments.

Growing up helped prepare me in ways I didn’t appreciate at the time. I was raised by my mum and my grandparents, and death was never treated as something frightening or taboo. We spent the majority of our free time exploring the Peak District, fascinated by nature. If my grandad found a dead bird on his bike rides, we’d examine it with curiosity rather than fear. Death wasn’t hidden away, it was simply part of life.

When my grandmother died suddenly while I was 21, I experienced my first significant bereavement. Sitting with my family in A&E, I found myself instinctively helping everyone make space to say what they needed to say to her before she died. I stayed with my grandad while he spoke to his beloved wife one last time. Even in a hospital side room, there was room for tenderness, dignity and love. Looking back, that experience shaped everything that followed.

Later, I discovered end of life doula training almost by accident. I signed up thinking it would simply be useful professional development. Before I’d even finished the course, someone I knew contacted me because their father was dying. I felt completely out of my depth, but I quickly realised something important: people weren’t looking for an expert with all the answers. They were looking for someone willing to have conversations that everyone else was avoiding and explain what their dad was going through was the normal dying process, gently but clearly.

That remains one of the biggest misconceptions about my work. Families are often overwhelmed not because death itself is terrifying, but because nobody has explained what’s happening. Sometimes all they need is someone to calmly translate medical language into something human. I also get to know the person dying, the life they’ve lived, and what matters most to them. My job is to advocate for them and help relatives if people aren’t on the same page.

One of the most distressing experiences for families is watching someone who is actively dying when they don’t understand what they are seeing and hearing. Changes in breathing, fluctuating consciousness and the so-called “death rattle” can seem frightening if you’ve never witnessed them before. Often, the person who is dying is peaceful, while it’s the people around them who are suffering most. Much of my role is helping families understand what they’re seeing is our body’s way of preparing to die so they can stop fearing every moment and instead spend meaningful time together.

Related Articles

I wish we talked about death much earlier. We all know we are going to die, yet many of us wait until we’re standing in a hospital corridor during a crisis before having conversations that could have happened years earlier.

People often ask whether schools should teach children about death. I think they should. Children are actually remarkably good at talking about death until adults teach them that it’s something uncomfortable or inappropriate. We would all benefit from becoming more comfortable with grief, loss and mortality long before we desperately need that knowledge.

Working in this field has also transformed my own mental health. That surprises people. They assume thinking about death every day must be depressing. For me, it’s been the opposite.

Every day I ask myself a simple question: if my life ended sooner than I expected, would I be happy with how I’m spending my time?

That perspective has made me less anxious, more grateful and much more intentional. I don’t sweat the small stuff in the way I once did. I notice birdsong. I appreciate ordinary days. Death has made my life bigger, not smaller.

One woman I supported put it perfectly. After receiving a terminal diagnosis, she said to me, “Since I’ve been diagnosed, my life is more colourful.”

I hear versions of that again and again. Faced with mortality, people suddenly start seeing the world differently. They notice the trees, the changing seasons and the people they love. I don’t think we should have to wait for a terminal diagnosis before we start living that way.

People often ask what dying people regret most. The popular lists online don’t always match what I’ve heard. One of the most common regrets people have shared with me is staying too long in relationships that no longer brought them joy. Many women describe sacrificing themselves to keep everyone else happy, only to realise, at the end of their lives, how much of themselves they gave away.

That says something much bigger about the expectations placed on women. Care is still seen as women’s work. The adult child who contacts our charity because they’re exhausted caring for a parent is, more often than not, a daughter. Women carry enormous emotional labour, often alongside work and family responsibilities, and society still undervalues that care.

That’s something I’m passionate about changing. Care work matters. Compassionate communities matter. The people supporting us through the biggest moments of our lives deserve to be valued.

My own leadership journey has challenged assumptions too. At 35, I’m now CEO of End of Life Doula UK, something I still occasionally find surreal. Early on, I thought leadership meant becoming harder, more detached and more authoritative. Then I found myself crying during a difficult meeting with someone who’d had a bad experience. I was mortified. I thought I’d completely failed as a leader.

Instead, that moment built trust.

It taught me that empathy isn’t a weakness. Sometimes our humanity is exactly what leadership requires.

I’m also autistic and have ADHD. There are countless misconceptions about what that means, including the myth that autistic people lack empathy. My experience couldn’t be more different. I’m deeply empathetic, and the way my brain works helps me juggle complexity, spot patterns and lead an organisation that has grown rapidly over the last few years.

We receive around 30 requests for end of life doula support per month, and this has risen sharply since Nicole Kidman announced in April that she is training to become an end of life doula, joining a number of other high-profile figures including Hamnet director Chloe Zhao, Riley Keough, and Ruby Wax.

If there’s one thing I wish everyone knew about death, it’s this: don’t wait for the perfect moment to talk to your loved one about the impact they’ve had on your life and what memories you’ll treasure in the future.

One thing that has surprised me most is how ordinary death can be. It’s always portrayed as dramatic on TV and in films, and I don’t want to ‘positive-wash’ death, but it can be very simple, peaceful and beautiful. And often families sit with their person for days, pop out for 15 minutes and that’s when they take their last breath. It is common for people to wait until they’re alone to die, and it’s nothing for relatives to feel guilty about.

Television has taught us to expect profound final speeches and neatly scripted goodbyes. Real life is rarely like that. Say the things you want to say now. Tell people you love them while they can hear it. Have the conversations you’ve been avoiding.

The reality is that working with death has made me more hopeful, not less. It has shown me that life isn’t measured by how long it lasts, but by how present we are while we’re living it.

For more information about end of life doulas and to seek support visit ⤵️

End Of Life Doula UK

More than a third of women in Britain drink beer, yet we make up just 7% of the people brewing it.

That’s one of the biggest takeaways from this year’s Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Independent Beer Report. Rachel Auty, founder of Women On Tap, says the stat reveals a bigger problem than just representation.

Women actually make up 31% of the indie beer workforce, but they’re overwhelmingly concentrated in support roles such as marketing, administration and accounting. In fact, 72% of admin and accounting staff are women, while the industry’s core creative role - brewing itself - remains almost exclusively male.

“We’re running the spreadsheets, not the mash tuns,” Rachel says. (A mash tun is a brewhouse vessel used in brewing and distilling that mixes ground malt with temperature-controlled water.)

She believes it’s a culture problem.

“It’s a space built for men still,” she says. “How can we change this to make it more appealing to more people?”

The figures show demand is there. Around 36% of women now say they drink beer, up three percentage points on last year. But Rachel believes the industry producing that beer still doesn’t reflect the people buying it.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again,” she wrote following the report’s release. “Without the representation of women and the inclusion of women’s perspectives in the workplace, it’s incredibly difficult to engage women as consumers.”

She remembers going to the pub with her dad years ago, back when, as she jokes, “beers were brown”, and constantly being questioned for ordering a pint of ale.

“Everybody used to be like, ‘A woman? Why are you drinking pints?’”

Surrounded almost entirely by older men, she couldn’t help wondering where the women were.

“Do women brew beer? Do women run breweries? What the hell is going on in this space?”

Those questions eventually led her to launch Women On Tap in 2017, beginning with a small festival in Harrogate showcasing beers brewed by women.

“I’m passionate about being a voice for women, tackling those male dominated spaces that bring with them all sorts of problematic beliefs, behaviours and perceptions”

“Lots of women said they still didn’t feel welcome in pubs.”

Women On Tap works across three key areas: representation, connection and improving workplaces, helping women build networks while pushing the industry towards meaningful change.

“We always joke that our goal is not to need to exist.”

Rachel says the low number of women brewers isn’t down to a lack of interest, but the environments many women find themselves in. Women On Tap has recently heard from women attending festivals and industry events who have been spoken to “inappropriately”.

“Some blokes clearly think that it’s still okay to behave in that space as if it’s owned by men.”

That’s why the organisation has become a visible presence at festivals and trade events, including as a purpose partner for this year’s London Craft Beer Festival on the 17 and 18 July.

Use our code ‘femalelead’ for £15 off tickets!

Buy tickets using our code!

“We’re saying, ‘No, it’s not your space, we’re very much here,’” Rachel explains. “You can’t do that anymore. You can’t get away with it.”

She hopes that visibility reassures women that “we’ve got their backs”. Even now, she admits, industry events can still feel intimidating. “It’s just a way of saying, ‘We see you, and we’ve got your back.’”

While there are signs of progress elsewhere, Rachel says the brewing numbers are still moving in the wrong direction.

“I think a lot of women have been feeling quite disillusioned and unsupported and have left,” she says. “I know women myself that have left the industry completely for these reasons.”

Instead of asking why women aren’t entering brewing, Rachel believes employers should be asking why they’re struggling to stay.

“We need to create this culture where women are actively supported in these roles.”

Women do make up 50.3% taproom staff, making them the majority in this space, which Rachel says is “brilliant.” But her concern is that “bar work is more accessible to women who want to work in beer and see limited options to do so”

“Heineken are currently working on some women’s brewing experience days that we’re working with them on. So that’ll be really interesting because obviously when it’s a name that people recognise, it ends up being quite impactful.

“On a smaller scale, I’ve seen breweries that have paid for their women staff to do some specific training as a bit of a targeted initiative”

“Progress is happening in very little pockets but not across the board.”

Another barrier she recognises is that for decades, beer has largely been marketed by men, for men.

Rachel mentions everything from sexist pump clip names to working men’s clubs and advertising that has historically suggested women weren’t the intended audience.

Many women decided beer just “wasn’t for them”.

Women are expected to control around 75% of discretionary spending by 2028, making them one of the most influential consumer groups. Rachel believes breweries that fail to engage women are missing a huge commercial opportunity.

“If you’re a beer brand or brewer you want women to buy beer and you want them to be choosing your beer.”

Plus, “if there are more women going into the industry and being that representation piece, then there are going to be more women drinking it,” she says.

“That means more customers.”

She mentions Guinness’ recent popularity among younger women, fuelled by influencer marketing, as proof that perceptions around who drinks beer are beginning to shift.

Related articles

There are definitely reasons for optimism.

For the first time, SIBA collected data on brewery ownership in partnership with Women On Tap, revealing that 21% of brewery owners are women.

Rachel explains that figure is encouraging, but says it still raises questions about how much decision-making power women really hold.

Women On Tap also continues to grow.

After taking over International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day last year, the organisation helped increase participating brew days from 61 to 88 in a year. The campaign also raised £33,000 for women’s causes this year, up from £27,000 the previous year, while a new bursary scheme is helping women overcome financial barriers to entering the industry.

Ultimately, Rachel wants women who are curious about a career in brewing to know they don’t have to navigate it alone.

“It’s such an incredible community of amazing women that have got your back. There are opportunities all over to take advantage of, and there is support to help get your foot in the door and then help you progress.

“We hope that support will increasingly come from workplaces, but for now it comes from people like us. There’s a great community of really passionate people, and it’s a very rewarding career when you can get yourself in there.”

You can discover some of the UK’s best independent breweries at the London Craft Beer Festival, taking place in Southwark on 17 and 18 July, where Women On Tap is a purpose partner. The Female Lead readers can get £15 off tickets using the code ‘femalelead’ when booking.

Buy tickets using our code!

Sleep has become something many of us feel we need to optimise, track and perfect - but in trying to control it, we may actually be making it harder. Sleep Physiologist and Behavioural Sleep Medicine…

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Sleep has become something many of us feel we need to optimise, track and perfect - but in trying to control it, we may actually be making it harder. Sleep Physiologist and Behavioural Sleep Medicine Specialist Stephanie Romiszewski unpacks why women’s sleep is often misunderstood, separating common myths from the science behind how we really sleep.

From the impact of caregiving and hormones to the pressure of chasing the “perfect” night’s sleep, she explains why sleep naturally changes throughout life and why a more flexible, evidence-based approach can help us sleep better.

Read the full article below.

In this issue of Take The Lead we’re talking about the moments, stories and changes shaping conversations around women.

Millie Bobby Brown opened up about motherhood, sharing that she has become more emotional since having her daughter — and why she’s proud of that vulnerability rather than apologising for it.

We’re also looking at two major developments in women’s health and safety: new NHS tests that could help speed up endometriosis diagnosis, and plans to increase sentences for people who murder a current or former partner.

Plus, we asked the cast of Prime Video’s ELLE which stereotypes about women they can’t stand — and their answers are ones we think many people will relate to.

Across our channels, we’ll continue sharing the latest stories, research and conversations affecting women.

Enjoy, share with your friends, and let us know what you think!

The Female Lead Team

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We’re talking about…

🩺 Two new NHS tests could speed up endometriosis diagnosis - For many people with endometriosis, getting a diagnosis takes an average of around nine years. But two new non-invasive tests are set to be introduced on the NHS, helping doctors identify the condition much sooner.

One test uses a saliva sample to detect biomarkers linked to endometriosis, while the other measures electrical signals in the gut using sensors placed on the abdomen, with results available in around 45 minutes. NICE says the tests could reduce diagnosis times from years to just weeks, helping people access treatment sooner.

⚖️ Tougher sentences planned for domestic killers - The UK Government has announced plans to increase the starting prison sentence for people who murder a current or former partner, closing a sentencing gap campaigners have challenged for years.

Under the current system, domestic murders involving a weapon already in the home can receive a lower starting sentence than those where a weapon is brought to the scene. The Ministry of Justice says the change will ensure domestic killings are treated more consistently. More than one in five homicides in England and Wales are domestic, with women making up the vast majority of victims.

Inspire me…

Twenty years ago, as a young woman entering a field where many established voices had built their careers around traditional sleep advice, challenging some of those assumptions was not always popular. I started to question the growing tendency to treat sleep as something that can be engineered through increasingly complicated rules, routines and rituals.

My work has focused on helping people step away from the fear, pressure and misinformation that surrounds sleep and understand the biological systems that drive it. That means looking beyond sleep hygiene checklists, beyond the pursuit of the perfect bedtime routine and beyond the assumption that women’s sleep difficulties can always be explained by hormones.

Read the full article here

Final thought…

We asked the cast of Prime Video’s new series ELLE which stereotypes about women they wish would disappear for good - and their answers didn’t disappoint. We couldn’t agree more.

ELLE is streaming now.

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Become a paid supporter

The Female Lead is a charity on a mission to empower women.

In the last 8 years, we have given access to books and teaching materials to 2.5 million students in 25,000 schools around the world. We carry out research that reframes our understanding of women’s experience, such as our Fulfilment Findersurvey which reveals what matters most to women at different life stages. It has now been completed by 150,000 women globally.

We can’t run the charity without your support.

For just £3.50 a month or £25 a year, you can make a huge difference.

Your donations allow us to continue to provide teaching resources and education to girls and women around the world, conduct groundbreaking research, and share science and stories online.

By pledging to make a donation, you get a host of other benefits like:

• Access to our full archive of content on everything from advice from CEOs, to early menopause, to the brain impact of the mental load

• Get the first look at our research reports busting myths around women

• A virtual supporter badge to share and display online

Subscribe now

Share

Twenty years ago, as a young woman entering a field where many established voices had built their careers around traditional sleep advice, challenging some of those assumptions was not always popular. I started to question the growing tendency to treat sleep as something that can be engineered through increasingly complicated rules, routines and rituals.

Through my work as a Sleep Physiologist and Behavioural Sleep Medicine Specialist in the NHS, private practice, research and education, I’ve helped thousands of people navigate sleep difficulties ranging from occasional disruption to long-standing insomnia. My background is in Psychology and Behavioural Sleep Medicine and I spent time at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine early in my career, which sparked my passion for the field. I am the founder of Sleepyhead Clinic and author of Think Less, Sleep More.

My work has focused on helping people step away from the fear, pressure and misinformation that surrounds sleep and understand the biological systems that drive it. That means looking beyond sleep hygiene checklists, beyond the pursuit of the perfect bedtime routine and beyond the assumption that women’s sleep difficulties can always be explained by hormones.

Sleep problems exist and women’s sleep can look different at different stages of life. But sleep is innate. It will always be there, even when it does not match our expectations of what a “good sleeper” should look like.

The only difference between me and many of the people I work with is not that I sleep perfectly. I don’t. My sleep has changed during stressful periods, night shifts, pregnancy and parenting a sleepless baby, just as it does for everyone else. The difference is that I do not worry about it. Over-analysing sleep the way we have started to do is making sleep worse, not better.

Sleep plays an important role in physical health, emotional wellbeing, learning, memory, recovery and immune function. Most adults need somewhere between seven and nine hours of sleep, but I genuinely find it unhelpful to become too focused on the numbers.

Some people naturally need more, some less, and sleep needs change throughout life. The bigger question is whether you are allowing yourself the opportunity for sleep when you need it and whether your sleep, on average, is supporting your life reasonably well.

The Sleep Gender Gap

Women often experience sleep differently to men, but too often conversations about women’s sleep focus entirely on hormones while overlooking the reality of modern life. Women are still more likely to carry a larger share of childcare, household management, emotional labour and caring responsibilities. Increasingly, I also see women becoming the primary financial breadwinner without a corresponding shift in family responsibilities at home. This matters for sleep. When you are the person responsible for remembering school trips, organising childcare, booking appointments, managing family logistics and responding to everybody else’s needs, it becomes much harder to prioritise your own sleep. Sleep can start to feel like a luxury rather than a biological necessity. This is where sleep can fall down – when we actively can’t have the same opportunity as the non default carer. Not because our biology wont allow us.

Hormone sleep havoc

Hormones of course, do play a role. Many women notice changes in sleep around their menstrual cycle due to pain, temperature changes, mood shifts or physical discomfort. Pregnancy commonly brings disrupted sleep through discomfort, reflux, frequent urination, vivid dreams and anxiety about becoming a parent. Perimenopause and menopause can bring night sweats, hot flushes, mood changes and fragmented sleep. But this is normal and in all these cases our bodies are doing something remarkable! Our sleep is adaptable – this doesn’t mean it’s not difficult, or that it can’t be improved, but over focusing on sleep and expecting so much rigidity from it is actually making sleep worse for a lot of women right now.

Sleep changes throughout life. It changes with age, illness, stress, neurodiversity, caring responsibilities and major life transitions. Sleep at 50 should not look exactly like sleep at 25 and that is not necessarily a problem to solve. Women are remarkably adaptable. We do not need to pathologise every change or view every difficult period of sleep as evidence that something is broken that we must fix – we need to give ourselves a break, and add in some flexibility.

Sleep myths

One of the most common myths I hear is that mothers are biologically designed to wake for babies while fathers sleep through. There is some evidence that primary caregivers become more responsive to infant cues, but this is not exclusive to women. Fathers, adoptive parents and same-sex partners who take on primary caregiving roles show many of the same adaptations. Framing night-time caregiving as purely female biology risks overlooking the huge influence of learning, experience, expectation and family roles.

Another myth is that women need dramatically more sleep than men. The evidence simply does not support this idea. There may be small average differences between groups, but nowhere near enough to justify the idea that women are biologically programmed to need substantially more sleep than men. Sleep needs vary far more between individuals than between sexes.

Women going through perimenopause and menopause are often given endless lists of sleep tips: lavender sprays, herbal teas, warm baths, avoiding screens and having perfectly curated evening routines. While these things may help someone feel relaxed, the evidence that they reliably resolve significant sleep difficulties is surprisingly limited. This can leave women feeling as though they have failed when they are already doing everything “right”. But we are not taught that the foundations of sleep are often much more powerful than the finishing touches. And whilst sleep may need to change, we can still have a strong sleep baseline that works for us by focusing on this instead.

Many women describe feeling physically exhausted but mentally alert at bedtime. The body is ready for sleep but the mind is still replaying conversations, planning tomorrow or worrying about not sleeping. Bedtime is often the first quiet moment of the day. Others find themselves lying awake calculating hours, checking the clock or analysing every awakening during the night. Increasingly, one of the biggest sleep problems I see is not sleep itself but anxiety about sleep.

The science behind sleep

Sleep is driven primarily by two biological processes: sleep drive, which builds throughout the day the longer we are awake, and our circadian rhythm, our internal body clock. This is why I encourage women to focus less on creating the perfect evening and more on strengthening their mornings. Consistent wake times (but flexible bed times – go to bed when sleepy only), morning light exposure, regular movement and regular meals often have a far greater impact on sleep than adding another product, supplement or bedtime ritual. And there is real evidence-based treatment out there to help re-train you to sleep if it’s not something you can solve by yourself at home.

For women experiencing menopause-related sleep difficulties, addressing symptoms such as hot flushes, pain or mood changes can absolutely help. Hormonal treatments can be transformative for some women. But we also should not overlook the basics that support sleep regardless of age or hormones – focus on creating a good sleep baseline with the morning routine and listening to your body.

Healthy sleepers are usually flexible sleepers. They can have a poor night, carry on with their day and trust that sleep will recover naturally without changing their behaviour dramatically or fretting about it. The goal is not eliminating every wake-up, every difficult night or every period of change. Women’s sleep changes throughout life, but that does not mean women are destined to struggle with it. Understanding the biology that drives sleep and the real factors that we can influence, while recognising the social and practical realities that shape it is often far more helpful than chasing perfect routines or blaming our own biology for every poor night. Women already carry enough pressure, and I would really like for sleep to stop being one of them!

Whatever stage of life you may be at, there is evidence-based support available for sleep struggles. If you’d like to learn more, Stephanie’s book ‘Think Less, Sleep More’, BBC Maestro course ‘Sleep Better’ and personalised 1:1 support through Sleepyhead Clinic are all designed to help you better understand your sleep and overcome sleep difficulties.

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By June Angelides MBE - Founder of The Portfolio Method

Most people nearly faint when I tell them I have five job titles but one thriving career: investor, founder, board advisor, writer and public speaker.

What they do not always realise is that none of this works by accident. I have spent years developing my personal infrastructure. Now I am sharing it with the world.

I have built a portfolio career over the last 11 years, and at first it happened almost by accident. Like many ambitious women, I found myself being tapped for opportunities because I was good at my day job. Prestigious organisations. Interesting roles. Exciting projects.

But what I learned, often the hard way, is that the real risk is not simply saying yes too often. It is saying yes without doing a life audit of what that new commitment will mean for everything else you already carry.

One of the most visceral examples of this in my own life was when I sat on the board of a business I deeply admired. The time commitment I had been told to expect did not match what ended up being required. There were additional meetings, more asks, and more of me being needed than I had planned for. I was also in my season of yes.

There was one day in particular when I nearly passed out from pure exhaustion. That was the moment I knew I could not do it all. It was the moment I finally learned what my personal limit was.

That experience changed the way I think about ambition. I do not believe women need to aim lower. I believe we need better tools, better boundaries and better self-knowledge. That is the foundation of the Portfolio Method. We help women design careers that work around their energy levels, their natural way of working and their personal limit when it comes to taking on additional roles.

Start with your energy, not your ego

One of the biggest skills I have learned over the past 11 years is the power of no. But the power of no only works when you are clear on what deserves your yes.

For me, that clarity sharpened after I had my second child. I recognised that I felt most aligned when I was doing work that increased gender equality, improved access to finance and created better outcomes for women. That is what drives me. Once I became honest about that, decision-making became easier. If something fits, I lean in. If it does not, I can let it go.

This is why I always encourage women to do a life audit before they take on anything new. Not just, does this sound exciting? But what will this mean for my time, my family, my energy, my existing commitments and the goals I am actually trying to reach?

Ambitious women are often very used to being told they can do it all. I think the more important question is whether they should, and at what cost.

Build structure that protects your future self

I used to think the dream was flexibility. I thought going with the flow was freedom. In reality, a completely open diary is often an invitation for other people to fill your life for you.

I have a phrase for this. If your diary is too flexible, it is like leaving your front door open and allowing other people to come in and place their furniture wherever they want. You lose space to think. You lose space to strategise. You lose space to recover.

Structure has saved me.

One of the most practical things I do is block time to learn. I block a whole day for learning because staying sharp is part of the job. That could mean podcasts, books, journals, lectures or simply talking to people who have deep experience. The point is that I do not leave my development to chance.

The race is on. AI is getting smarter. We have a responsibility to keep growing too.

Protect your money by pricing the real cost

The second thing I protect is money.

Too many women hesitate to ask for the amount they are deserving of. Too many assume the offer in front of them is fixed. But if you have not done the life audit, you also have not priced the real cost of saying yes.

That is one of the key ideas we teach through the Portfolio Method. Before you take on an additional role, look at the full picture. What is the real scope? How many hours will this actually take? What will need to move in your week to make room for it? And are you being compensated properly for that reality?

Time is not abstract. Energy is not abstract. They are part of the cost.

In our work, 85 per cent of women who have taken our audit have told us they are underpricing. That tells me this is not simply a personal issue. It is a cultural one. There is still far too little transparency around what women should charge and what they should be paid.

That is why I believe we need to talk more openly about money. Ask your peers the uncomfortable question. What are they charging? What are they hearing? The more we say these things out loud, the less taboo they become.

Visibility matters more than women are often told

The third thing I protect is visibility.

I think many women are still taught to believe that if they do great work, people will notice. Sometimes they do. Often they do not.

You need to know what people pick up the phone to call you for. More than that, the people around you need to know it too. You should be at the tip of people’s tongues when it comes to your subject matter expertise.

That means being willing to talk about what you do, the outcomes you have achieved and the success you have created. Visibility is not vanity. It is clarity. It is how the right opportunities start finding you.

Key takeaway

The biggest mistake I see is burnout. Overcommitting. Not believing you are worthy of protecting your time. Not believing you are worthy of investing in yourself.

I do not think women need to shrink their ambition. I think we need to build better personal infrastructure around it.

For me, that means protecting my energy, my money and my visibility. For other women, the exact mix may look different. But the principle is the same: design a career that works with your life, your natural way of working and your actual capacity.

If this resonates, I would love to invite the Female Lead community to take our free audit and get clarity.

The MyPholyo Mapper is a free audit built around six quick questions to help you map where you are now and unlock where you could go next. It can reveal if the work you love most could be earning you more, if your value and visibility are out of sync, if a big opportunity may be hiding in plain sight, and if the vision you are building has the calendar time it deserves.

We are also building the first AI platform and career companion for portfolio professionals, and you can join the waitlist through the Portfolio Method website.

Born in London and raised in Lagos, June grew up watching women carry many roles at once. The idea that a career should narrow you down to one title never made sense to her.

She started at Silicon Valley Bank. On her second maternity leave, she founded Mums in Technology, the UK’s first child-friendly coding school, teaching hundreds of women to code with their babies in the room.

Today June is a mother of three with five job titles: investor, founder, board advisor, writer and public speaker. She is Venture Partner at Samos Investments and founder of Levare Ventures, backing deep tech, life sciences and healthtech across Europe and Africa. She sits on the boards of Ruka Hair, Jude and Code First Girls, and advises the UK government on high-growth women-led businesses. With her sister, she co-founded Mama’s Breakfast Club CIC, feeding children daily in the city where she grew up.

The Portfolio Method, used in over 20 countries, helps people building more than one income stream design careers that work around their energy, their time and their life.

LinkedIn Top Voice. FT Most Influential Tech Leaders. Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in Tech. IET Honorary Fellow. MBE for services to women in technology.

Non-linear is the new normal.

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If you’re in the UK and you’re reading this, congratulations for making it through a very sweaty June. The sun has been doing its absolute most, and public transport has been questionable at best.

Through a heatwave, it’s never a bad idea to pause for some good news — and June delivered plenty of it. Across science, sport, politics, health and culture, women have been driving progress, and we’ve pulled together some of our favourites for you here.

Consider this your monthly good news reminder.

No women aged 20–24 in England have died from cervical cancer for the first time, thanks to HPV vaccine

A landmark study funded by Cancer Research UK shows the HPV vaccine is making cervical cancer increasingly preventable, with researchers highlighting a major milestone: between 2020 and 2024, no women aged 20–24 in England died from the disease.

England introduced routine HPV vaccination for 12–13-year-olds in 2008, and since then an estimated 200 lives have already been saved. Researchers say this outcome would not have been possible without widespread vaccination, with early data showing near-elimination of cervical cancer deaths in those vaccinated at a young age.

The findings underline the life-saving impact of early prevention, with experts pointing to the vaccine as a breakthrough in protecting future generations from a disease that is now largely preventable.

All-female refereeing team makes history at FIFA Men’s World Cup for second time

For the second consecutive men’s FIFA World Cup, women have made refereeing history after an all-female officiating team took charge of Czechia’s 1–1 draw with South Africa on 18 June. The match was overseen by referee Tori Penso, alongside assistants Brooke Mayo and Kathryn Nesbitt, marking only the second time in the tournament’s history that an all-women crew has officiated a game.

It follows the first introduction of women referees at the men’s World Cup in Qatar 2022, when Stéphanie Frappart, Neuza Back and Karen Díaz took charge of Germany vs Costa Rica.

Reflecting on the experience, Mayo said, “Most of the time, I don’t think about it. We are just a team of officials.”

“But then you have an instructor come up and ask for a picture because his daughter is inspired by us, thousands of miles away.”

“Or an older female FIFA volunteer, pulling you aside and saying how proud she is to see women at this level and how it never seemed possible when she was younger,” she added. “So even though I view us as just a normal trip that has earned their place at this FIFA World Cup, I know we represent something bigger than ourselves.”

Across the United States, Canada and Mexico, women are forming a growing pool of match officials at the highest level, including Katia García, Sandra Ramírez and video official Tatiana Guzmán.

South Africa’s freelance gender pay gap is among the lowest globally

South African women in the freelance market earn just 3.9% less per hour than men, according to Remitly for Freelancers. This narrow gap positions South Africa as second worldwide for gender-balanced freelance pay and highlights the country as one of the strongest performers globally for pay equality in the gig economy.

In some fields, including consulting and marketing, women are even earning as much as or more than their male counterparts. This progress is being driven by strong education outcomes, improved internet access, and a growing supportive freelance community.

Olivia Rodrigo announces all-female music festival with 100% of proceeds supporting women and girls

Olivia Rodrigo has announced Daisy Chain Fields, a new music festival featuring an all-women line-up of artists she calls her “heroes and friends”, including Stevie Nicks, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski and Bikini Kill.

Inspired by Lilith Fair (a festival which musician Sarah McLachlan co-founded after music industry executives claimed that female artists couldn't sell as many tickets as their male counterparts) Daisy Chain Fields will donate 100% of its net proceeds to charities supporting women and girls, with every artist performing free of charge.

Olivia said she named the festival Daisy Chain Fields to reflect the idea of women “being strong and beautiful together.”

“I just feel like we need something really positive to do and see,” she said. “Young girls need awesome role models who are supporting other women and engaging in something that’s really joyful, musical and community-oriented.”

“I firmly believe that joy, community and music can be the drivers of meaningful change,” Olivia added, saying she’s dreamed of creating the festival for years.

Colombia becomes first in Latin America to ban FGM

Colombia has made history by becoming the first country in Latin America to pass dedicated legislation aimed at preventing and eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM).

The law, approved by Congress, targets a harmful practice that affects millions of girls and women globally and has also been reported within Colombia, including among members of the Emberá Indigenous community. FGM involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia and is recognised by the WHO as a form of gender-based violence.

The legislation was strongly driven by Emberá women, who led years of advocacy calling for state action. “This is not a cultural practice, absolutely not. It is a harmful practice that was imposed on our communities,” said Juliana Domico of the National Confederation of the Peoples of the Great Emberá Nation.

The new law introduces a national prevention policy, mandatory healthcare protocols, improved data collection, and community-led education programmes focused on an intercultural and rights-based approach.

Officials say the move marks a major step forward in protecting girls and women and tackling a practice affecting more than 200 million people worldwide.

Japan’s youngest female mayor takes maternity leave in rare political first

Shoko Kawata, 35, mayor of Yawata in Kyoto Prefecture, will take 16 weeks of leave (eight before and eight after childbirth), highlighting a gap in Japan’s political system, which has no formal maternity leave framework for elected officials. She is believed to be the first sitting mayor in Japan to have done so.

Shoko said women should not be forced into choosing between career and motherhood. “If they want to have a baby, they have to give up their career, or if they want to pursue a career, they have to give up having a baby,” arguing against an “either-or choice.” She added: “We are now working to improve this situation little by little, and I believe we are moving toward the design of systems aimed at achieving proper gender equality.”

Her decision comes amid slow but visible shifts in gender representation in local politics. Researcher Stefanie Schwarte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität points out that while Japan has been slow on gender equality, more women are entering and staying in political leadership roles. The number of female mayors has risen from around 50 to nearly 80 out of more than 1,700 municipalities in the past five years, with many now serving multiple terms.

The move also sits against the backdrop of Japan’s declining birth rate, with just 671,236 births recorded in 2025, the 10th consecutive yearly drop.

Shoko said she hopes her decision can help normalise parenting alongside public leadership and act as a “catalyst for changing the system”.

This is your reminder that women are driving SO much of the progress happening around us. Share this with friends, family, or anyone who could use a good news reminder.

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And if you’ve got stories of your own - from your community, your industry, or anywhere in the world - send them our way. We might include them in next month’s round-up. The news headlines tend to amplify the worst, but we’re just as committed to documenting the better.

If you’re in the UK and you’re reading this, congratulations for making it through a very sweaty June. The sun has been doing its absolute most, and public transport has been questionable at best.

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By Nahid de Belgeonne

A client said something to me recently that I haven’t stopped thinking about.

“I realised I had survived my success more than I had enjoyed my life.”

From the outside, her life looked exactly as she’d hoped it would.

A successful career, a family she loved and a home she had worked hard to build.

She was capable, competent and dependable. The person everyone turned to when something needed organising, solving or remembering.

Yet underneath it all, she was exhausted.

Not because she wasn’t resilient. Not because she couldn’t cope. Quite the opposite.

She had become exceptionally good at coping.

And that’s often where the problem begins.

Because many high-functioning women don’t recognise their own exhaustion until their body forces them to.

For years they continue functioning.

Meeting deadlines. Managing households. Supporting partners. Remembering birthdays.

Scheduling appointments. Holding emotional space for colleagues, children, friends and family members.

The list is endless.

What often goes unnoticed is the invisible labour underneath it all.

The thinking, anticipating, remembering, monitoring…the emotional management of it all.

Sociologists have long referred to this as emotional labour, but I think that phrase only captures part of the picture.

What many women carry is not simply emotional labour.

It’s a constant state of responsibility.

An ongoing awareness of what needs doing, who needs support and what might go wrong if they stop paying attention.

And over time, the body adapts.

This is something I see repeatedly in my work.

Women often arrive believing they have a stress problem or an anxiety problem.

What they actually have is a body that has become organised around responsibility.

Years of being the organiser. The reliable one. The person with the answers.

Years of anticipating needs before they’re spoken.

Years of staying one step ahead.

Your body learns from repetition.

It learns that vigilance is useful.

It learns that staying prepared is necessary.

It learns that slowing down might mean something gets missed.

Eventually these adaptations become so familiar they feel like personality.

“I’m just a worrier.”

“I’ve always been like this.”

“I like to stay busy.”

But often the body has simply adapted to the life it’s been living.

This is one reason burnout can be so difficult to recognise in capable women.

We tend to imagine burnout as collapse.

Someone unable to continue.

Someone visibly overwhelmed.

In reality, burnout often hides inside competence.

The woman who answers every email.

The woman who never forgets anything.

The woman who keeps everyone else’s lives running smoothly.

The woman who appears calm while carrying a relentless internal mental load.

From the outside she looks successful.

Inside, her body may be paying a very different price.

The shoulders that never quite relax.

The jaw that’s permanently tight.

The interrupted sleep.

The inability to switch off.

The exhaustion that rest doesn’t fully touch.

What fascinates me is how often these women continue pushing forward because they assume their ability to function means they’re fine.

But functioning is not the same thing as wellbeing.

Nor is it the same thing as living fully.

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Many women have become so skilled at carrying responsibility that they no longer notice its weight.

Until the body notices for them.

The irony is that many of the qualities society rewards in women are the very qualities that can become costly when left unchecked.

Adaptability.

Reliability.

Responsiveness.

Competence.

Care.

These are strengths.

But strengths carried continuously without recovery eventually become burdens.

I don’t believe the answer is for women to become less ambitious, less caring or less capable.

The answer lies in recognising that capability should not require chronic self-abandonment.

That being dependable should not mean being perpetually available.

That success should not come at the expense of inhabiting your own life.

Because perhaps the greatest cost of holding everything together isn’t exhaustion.

It’s what exhaustion quietly steals.

Presence.

Pleasure.

Creativity.

Joy.

The ability to fully arrive in the life you’ve worked so hard to create.

And that, to me, is the conversation more women need to be having.

Not how to become more resilient.

But how to stop carrying so much alone.

Three Ways To Start Reclaiming Your Capacity

1. Notice what you’ve normalised

One of the most powerful questions I ask clients is:

“What have you started calling normal?”

A clenched jaw.

Interrupted sleep.

Never sitting down without reaching for your phone.

Feeling responsible for everyone else’s experience.

Many of the patterns that drain us are hiding in plain sight because they’ve become familiar.

Awareness is where change begins.

2. Build recovery into your day, not just your holidays

Many women live as though recovery is something they’ll earn later.

After the project.

After the deadline.

After the children are older.

After the next busy season.

But the body doesn’t work like that.

Recovery isn’t a reward.

It’s a biological requirement.

Five minutes of conscious breathing.

A short walk without your phone.

A pause between meetings.

Small moments of recovery repeated consistently are far more powerful than waiting for the perfect weekend away.

3. Stop treating every thought as a task

Many capable women live in a state of continuous mental preparation.

The moment a thought appears, they act on it.

Respond.

Plan.

Organise.

Research.

Fix.

Try experimenting with a simple question:

“Does this need my attention right now?”

Not everything requires an immediate response.

Sometimes the most supportive thing we can do for ourselves is allow a thought to exist without turning it into an obligation.

About Nahid de Belgeonne

Nahid de Belgeonne is a somatic movement educator, nervous system specialist and author of Soothe: The Book Your Nervous System Has Been Longing For. She helps women understand the patterns their bodies have learned so they can create more rhythm, recovery and presence in everyday life.

Follow on Substack: Soothe with Nahid de Belgeonne | Substack

Free masterclass: Why Your Body Can’t Switch off Even When Nothing Is Wrong

Learn more: www.thehumanmethod.co.uk

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