Every March, social media and blogs are inundated with posts about supporting women and Women’s History Month. And while it’s great to introduce your female team members or raise awareness with a statistic, I’m not interested in writing that post.
Supporting women at work isn’t complicated in theory. Believe them when they tell you something is wrong. Give them room to grow, to fail, to take up space. Trust them with real responsibility and real flexibility. The gap between knowing this and actually doing it is where most organizations fall short.
And the data backs that up. Women are more likely to have their ideas dismissed, their mistakes scrutinized, and their need for flexibility treated as a liability. They’re less likely to be believed when they flag a problem, less likely to be encouraged to invest in their own career development, and more likely to bear the invisible weight of proving they belong in the room. None of that is dramatic — it’s just Tuesday for a lot of women in the workforce.
I’ve spent enough time in enough workplaces to know the difference between a company that supports women and one that just says it does: it’s how they show up in the day to day. I want to share what those moments have actually looked like here at Online Optimism, in the words of the women who lived them.
FIRST THING’S FIRST: IF THE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM CAN’T SEE A PROBLEM, THAT DOESN’T MEAN A PROBLEM DOESN’T EXIST
Early in my leadership tenure here, we had a client who was indirectly disrespectful toward the women on our team. The tricky part? When higher leadership got involved to address it, the behavior couldn’t be seen (spoiler alert: at the time, the leadership was only men).
I had to sit down with the team and explain what I was seeing — how I could read it clearly, and why it wasn’t registering for them. It was an uncomfortable conversation. But what mattered was that they listened, and it became a turning point in how our leadership thought about whose experiences they needed to actively make room for.
That experience always reminds me of something that I try to carry into every leadership decision and conversation I have with an Optimist: just because the people “in the room” can’t see a problem, that doesn’t mean a problem doesn’t exist.
SUPPORTING WOMEN DOESN’T MEAN LEAVING EVERYONE ELSE BEHIND
Here’s something worth naming: most of what women need to thrive at work isn’t actually women-specific. They need to be trusted. They need flexibility without penalty. They need to know that a mistake won’t define them and that a significant moment in their personal life won’t cost them professionally. They need their voice to matter regardless of their title.
Those aren’t radical asks. But they’re asks that women are often discouraged in asking for, and far less likely to have met.
A lot of the policies and practices that make Online Optimism a good place to work didn’t start as company-wide initiatives. They started as a response to a specific person’s need at a specific moment in time. Someone needed bereavement leave that actually honored grief. Someone needed flexibility during a personal emergency. Someone needed to know that a mental health day was a real option, not a theoretical one.
When we met those needs, those practices became part of how we treat everyone. That’s what equity actually looks like in practice: when you build for the people most likely to fall through the cracks, you end up building something better for the whole team.
When I asked the women at Online Optimism to share concrete examples of feeling supported, what came back wasn’t a list of gender-specific programs. It was a picture of a workplace that puts people first.
On being treated like a whole person:
Sara Bandurian, VP of Operations, described something that sounds simple but isn’t: “Emergencies come up, big and small, and you never know when that’ll happen. I love working somewhere that leadership trusts that if I need to take a day off or leave early due to a personal emergency I can, no questions asked. I didn’t realize how much stress it alleviates when my manager has my back and isn’t adding additional stressors.”
Madison Buck, Director of Social Media, spoke to something our industry uniquely demands: “Our job requires us to be so online and it can sometimes be overwhelming when there’s so much negativity going on in the world. I love how if there’s anything particularly heavy going on, OO encourages our employees to take a step back if they need to for their mental health and wellbeing.”
On being seen, heard, and invested in:
Lauren Walter, Senior Director of Content, framed it in terms of voice: “Women’s voices are heard at Online Optimism. There are many women in leadership positions here, and every employee has opportunities to bring new ideas, perspectives, and advice to the table, regardless of tenure or seniority.” In a lot of organizations, that kind of access is something women have to fight for. Here it’s just how we operate.
Sara also shared something that speaks directly to a barrier a lot of women hit elsewhere: “I work for a company that not only allows me to go out and make new professional connections and further my career development, but encourages it. I feel valued as a human, not just as a worker.” Women are often implicitly discouraged from building visibility outside their company — as if investing in your own career is somehow disloyal. The opposite should be true.
On grace and psychological safety:
Sara also shared this: “It’s easy to feel afraid when you mess up — and we all mess up at some point. I’ve appreciated being able to own my mistakes and learn from them for the future.” The ability to make a mistake without fear of it defining you is not a given in most workplaces. But women — who are often held to a higher standard of perfection — feel the absence of that grace more acutely.
Jaclyn Fletcher, Reddit Strategist, joined the team in December, and said, “OO shows a lot of genuine care and consideration for all employees. The company culture here is one of the best I’ve experienced in a workplace.”
On support during life’s hardest moments:
Claire Escobedo, Creative Director, reflected on a personal moment: “I took extended bereavement leave unexpectedly in 2024 and there was no question from leadership that I could take as much time away as I needed. The rest of the team covered for me while I was gone, so that when I was ready to come back, I wasn’t overwhelmed by what was waiting for me.” A written policy is one thing. A culture that actually honors it is another.
STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS — AND THAT’S THE POINT
One of the things I’m most careful about is that we don’t pretend we have this all figured out. Our parental leave policies are actively being shaped right now by the employees going through them — and that process is deliberate, not accidental.
As Lauren put it: “Sometimes oversights are unintentional — it’s because the people involved in setting policies don’t have relevant personal experience. I appreciate Online Optimism’s not just willingness to adapt, but active anticipation that we will learn from this experience and adjust our processes accordingly.”
Sara echoed that: “I appreciate that we have reshaped our parental leave and back-to-work policies based on feedback actively gathered from current and soon-to-be parents. It’s great to see leadership open to learning, and Optimists feeling empowered to make a change for the better.”
That’s what advocacy with humility looks like. You listen, you adjust, and you accept that the work is ongoing — especially when it comes to the experiences of people whose day-to-day reality you may not fully share.
Supporting women at work isn’t a March initiative. It’s a daily practice of listening, believing, adjusting, and making room. We’re still building it here. But I’m proud of what it already looks like — and grateful to the women who helped me put it into words.
Interested in joining a team that’s doing this work? Check out our open positions.
