Why 60% of Women Leaders Are Burning Out — and What Organizations and Women Can Do to Stop It
The numbers are staggering, and they're getting worse. According to McKinsey's 2025 Women in the Workplace report, 60% of senior-level women experience frequent burnout, compared to just 50% of senior-level men. International Women’s Day coverage provides additional context on these trends. For women new to leadership roles, that number jumps to an alarming 70%. And for women of colour in senior positions? A devastating 77%.
This isn't just a personal crisis; it's an organizational emergency that's hemorrhaging talent, innovation, and competitive advantage. When we lose women leaders to burnout, we don't just lose their individual contributions. We lose the psychological safety, collaborative leadership styles, and transformational thinking that research consistently shows women bring to executive teams.
I recall an experience from my time working in corporate finance that has never left me.
I was on vacation in San Diego with my son, and we were just about to leave for Legoland. As we were walking out the door, my phone rang. It was an important client—one my designated “cover person” couldn’t manage—so the call came to me.
My son was six years old and bursting with excitement. This was his first trip to Legoland, something he had been anticipating for months. We had travelled all the way from Canada, and we only had one day to go. One day.
As I sat on the edge of the bed, laptop open, putting out fires on the phone, I watched his face fall. The clock kept ticking. Time at the land of Legos—this magical place he had dreamed about—was slipping away. He sat there fully dressed, ready to go, waiting patiently for me to finish a work call that had already crossed every reasonable boundary.
That image is burned into my memory: my child waiting, hopeful and quiet, while I was tethered to a job that refused to let go—even on vacation, even in that moment—a job I showed up for well beyond 100%, but that failed to show up for me when burnout finally took hold. It comes back to me every single time a boundary is tested.
That day made something heartbreakingly clear. The cost of these demands doesn’t stop with women—it ripples outward, deeply affecting our families. As leaders—both in our professional lives and in our homes—we cannot give our full attention when part of us is perpetually claimed by work. Our children shouldn’t have to accept mothers who are only 80% present, because the remaining 20% is constantly siphoned off by jobs that never truly end.
The burnout I experienced—first in corporate finance, and also as a consultant and entrepreneur without sufficient capacity or boundary systems—was profound. And these challenges are not confined to boardrooms or C-suites. They affect women across roles, industries, and income levels. In many parts of the world, the situation is far worse, with women’s rights being explicitly violated. This is not sustainable. And it must stop.
Recovery didn’t happen by accident. It required deliberate, sustained effort—both personally and structurally. The strategies I’m sharing here are meant to help women avoid reaching that breaking point, and to support organizations in creating durable, systemic change that honours both human limits and human lives.
The Hidden Epidemic Behind the Statistics
The burnout crisis among women leaders isn't happening in a vacuum. It's the predictable result of systemic workplace dynamics that place impossible demands on women while providing inadequate support structures.
The Invisible Labour Tax
Women leaders consistently shoulder what researchers call "office housework", the emotional labour, mentoring, team support, and thankless tasks that keep organizations running but rarely appear on performance reviews. This invisible work is critical for organizational health, yet it's neither recognized nor compensated, creating a double burden that men in leadership rarely face.
As women, we’re often "used" to unpaid labour—it's deeply ingrained from our experiences as mothers and caregivers. But this should not be the norm at work. We deserve to be compensated for every minute and more. Organizations must recognize and address these ingrained inequities—not just for fairness, but for the health and success of their teams.
The Scrutiny Amplifier
Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety reveals a crucial insight: environments where people feel safe to take risks, make mistakes, and speak up are essential for high performance. Yet women leaders operate in the opposite environment, under heightened scrutiny, where every decision is questioned, and every misstep is amplified.
This constant hypervigilance is exhausting. Women leaders report feeling like they must work twice as hard to prove their competence, while simultaneously managing the emotional labour of maintaining team psychological safety for others.
The Sponsorship Gap
The data is clear: women are significantly less likely to receive career sponsorship, the kind of high-level advocacy that opens doors to stretch assignments, visible projects, and promotion opportunities. This gap forces women to work harder for the same advancement opportunities, creating a perpetual cycle of overexertion without proportional reward.
The Psychological Safety Paradox
Here's where Amy Edmondson's groundbreaking work on psychological safety becomes crucial to understanding and solving women's leadership burnout. In her research, Edmondson defines psychological safety as "a belief that one can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation."
The paradox is this: women leaders are often expected to create psychological safety for their teams while operating in environments that provide none for them. They're asked to be vulnerable, authentic leaders who encourage risk-taking and innovation, while simultaneously being penalized for their own vulnerability or perceived failures.
This creates what I call "psychological safety debt"; women leaders give more safety than they receive, depleting their emotional reserves and contributing directly to burnout.
5 Proven Strategies to Stop the Burnout Epidemic (for Organizations)
The solution to women's leadership burnout isn't individual resilience training or better time management. It requires systematic organizational change combined with strategic personal approaches. Here are five evidence-based strategies that actually work:
Strategy 1: Implement Psychological Safety Audits
Organizations must regularly assess the psychological safety of women leaders through anonymous surveys, focus groups, and 360-degree feedback that specifically examine gender dynamics. Create metrics around this data and hold senior leadership accountable for improvement.
Actionable step: Establish quarterly "safety check-ins" where women leaders can confidentially report instances of additional scrutiny, microaggressions, or unequal treatment. Use this data to identify and address systemic patterns.
Strategy 2: Quantify and Redistribute Invisible Labour
Make the invisible visible by conducting thorough audits of who performs emotional labour, mentoring, and administrative tasks that don't directly advance careers. Create formal recognition and rotation systems to ensure this work is shared equitably.
Organizations must recognize and address these ingrained inequities—not just for fairness, but for the health and success of their teams.
Actionable step: Track time spent on "office housework" for six months, then implement formal job descriptions that include this work and ensure it's distributed based on role, not gender.
Strategy 3: Create Sponsorship Accountability Programs
Establish mandatory sponsorship programs that require senior leaders to actively advocate for high-potential women, with specific metrics on advancement, stretch assignments, and visibility opportunities.
Actionable step: Every senior leader must sponsor at least one woman annually, with documented evidence of advocacy and measurable outcomes tied to performance evaluations.
Strategy 4: Design Recovery-Centric Leadership Development
Move beyond traditional leadership training to programs that specifically address the unique pressures women leaders face. Include modules on boundary-setting, saying no strategically, and creating sustainable high-performance practices.
Actionable step: Implement "strategic recovery" training that teaches women leaders how to protect their energy while maintaining influence, including scripted responses for deflecting inappropriate requests and strategies for delegating invisible labour.
Strategy 5: Establish Safe-to-Fail Innovation Zones
Create specific projects and initiatives where women leaders can take visible risks without career penalties. These "innovation zones" should have explicit psychological safety protocols and celebration of intelligent failures.
Actionable step: Designate 20% of strategic initiatives as "safe-to-fail" projects led by women, with advancement credit given regardless of outcome, focusing instead on learning and innovation.
A note for employers, HR, and leadership: Commit proactively to employee wellbeing as a core business objective; explicitly recognize and correct gender-based imbalances (including unpaid and invisible labour); and acknowledge that ongoing unpaid labour is a fundamental human rights issue under the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights. Align policies, job design, resourcing, and performance management with these commitments, and measure progress with clear accountability mechanisms.
What Women Leaders Can Do Now (While Systems Catch Up)
Systemic change is essential — but women leaders also need tools they can use today to protect their energy, credibility, and longevity. These strategies are not about “leaning in” harder; they’re about working smarter inside imperfect systems.
Strategy 1: Treat Boundaries as Leadership Infrastructure, Not Personal Preferences
Boundaries are often framed as individual self-care. In reality, they are operational safeguards that protect decision quality, judgment, and sustainability.
Actionable steps:
Decide in advance what is non-negotiable (e.g., vacations, family time, recovery days).
Use neutral, professional language:
“I’m unavailable during that window. I can review this at X time.”Repeat boundaries calmly and consistently — without over-explaining. Consistency, not justification, builds credibility.
Boundaries become easier to hold when they are treated as leadership standards, not emotional requests.
Strategy 2: Track Invisible Labour Like a CFO Tracks Costs
If your labour isn’t visible, it isn’t valued — and it will continue to be extracted.
Actionable steps:
For 4–6 weeks, track:
mentoring hours
emotional labor
administrative “fill-in” work
crisis management and cleanup
Bring this data into performance conversations using business language:
“X% of my time is allocated to work that sustains team performance but isn’t reflected in role scope or evaluation. Let’s align expectations.”
Data shifts the conversation from feelings to resource allocation.
Strategy 3: Advocate Strategically — Not Just Passionately
Many women advocate hard, but not always effectively. Strategic advocacy is targeted, documented, and outcome-oriented.
Actionable steps:
Prepare a one-page advocacy brief for yourself:
Key achievements
Business impact
Readiness for next-level responsibility
Explicitly ask for sponsorship, not just feedback:
“I’m looking for active advocacy for X opportunity. Are you willing to sponsor me?”Follow up in writing. Advocacy that isn’t documented often evaporates.
Self-advocacy is not self-promotion — it is career governance.
Strategy 4: Design Personal “Recovery Protocols” Before Burnout Hits
Burnout is not sudden; it is cumulative. Recovery must be planned, not reactive.
Actionable steps:
Schedule recovery time the way you schedule board meetings — in advance.
Create a personal escalation rule:
If I cancel X twice in one month, something must be removed from my workload.Normalize energy management as part of leadership effectiveness, not weakness.
Sustainable leaders don’t wait until they collapse — they intervene early.
Strategy 5: Build Micro-Alliances, Not Just Mentors
Formal mentors are helpful. Allies who intervene in real time are essential.
Actionable steps:
Identify 2–3 peers or senior colleagues willing to:
Redirect credit appropriately
Challenge biased dynamics in meetings
Reinforce your authority when it’s undermined
Make the alliance explicit:
“If you notice X happening, I’d appreciate you stepping in — I’ll do the same for you.”
Burnout thrives in isolation. Shared vigilance reduces the load.
A Critical Note
None of these strategies replaces the need for systemic change — and they should never be used to excuse organizational failure. But they can help women leaders stay intact long enough to lead, influence, and push for the structural reforms your earlier sections rightly demand.
The Business Case for Change
This isn't just about fairness: it's about competitive advantage. Companies with women in senior leadership consistently outperform their peers. McKinsey research shows that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability.
When we lose women leaders to burnout, we lose:
Higher team psychological safety scores
Better financial performance
More innovative problem-solving approaches
Stronger stakeholder relationships
Enhanced organizational resilience
Leading the Change
As Amy Edmondson notes, "Psychological safety isn't about being nice or lowering standards. It's about creating an environment where people can bring their best thinking to the most important work."
For women leaders reading this: your burnout isn't a personal failing: it's a systemic issue that requires systematic solutions. You can't resilience your way out of a broken system, but you can be part of changing it.
For organizations: the cost of losing women leaders far exceeds the investment in creating truly psychologically safe, equitable environments. The strategies outlined here aren't just moral imperatives: they're business necessities.
The 60% burnout rate among women leaders is a crisis, but it's also an opportunity. Organizations that act decisively to address these systemic issues won't just retain talented women: they'll create competitive advantages that compound over time.
The question isn't whether you can afford to implement these changes. It's whether you can afford not to.
Ready to transform your leadership approach and create lasting organizational change? Connect with Shannon to explore speaking opportunities focused on psychological safety, women's leadership, and creating thriving workplace cultures that support all leaders.