Women leaders are often told to be bold—but not too bold. Strong but not intimidating. Direct, but only if it lands with a smile. It’s exhausting and outdated.

Thankfully, more and more women are saying no thanks to these double standards and building their own lanes. We’ve reached a moment when leadership isn’t about squeezing into an old, dusty mold—it’s about breaking it apart and rebuilding something more inclusive, honest, and effective. And women are leading that charge with clarity, courage, and a refusal to compromise their values for approval.

Take Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter, who launched her beauty empire from a Brooklyn kitchen table. Long before “authenticity” became a buzzword, Lisa led with hers—centered on culture, community, and care. She didn’t just create a product; she sparked a movement. Over a decade after selling to L’Oréal, she's returned to the helm as president and equity holder as part of a new partnership with entrepreneur Joe Wong. This next chapter reflects a shifting landscape where Black-owned beauty businesses aren’t solely defined by an exit to a conglomerate but by sustained, community-rooted leadership.

Reshma Saujani founded Girls Who Code and later launched Moms First (formerly the Marshall Plan for Moms) to advocate for systemic change for mothers in the workplace. Her leadership is policy-shaping and deeply personal. Her latest project, My So-Called Midlife, My So-Called Midlife, is a podcast and platform helping women navigate aging with joy, candor, and power. She’s pushing back on the narrative that we should disappear as we grow older and replacing it with one where midlife is a time of reinvention, not invisibility.

Carla Vernón, CEO of The Honest Company, is one of the first Afro-Latina women to lead a U.S. publicly traded company and she’s not just holding the title, she’s redefining what leadership looks like from the inside out. Since stepping into the role in 2023, she’s focused on strategic transformation rooted in purpose and discipline, introducing a plan centered on brand growth, margin expansion, and operational excellence. But Vernón is equally committed to leading and authentically modeling what it means to show up fully as a woman of color in the C-suite. She told Fast Company, “We want to be known as a business that delivers performance and is powered by our values.” Her leadership challenges the tired notion that purpose and profit are at odds and proves that staying true to who you are is a competitive advantage.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, founding CEO of Bumble, didn’t just create a dating app—she redefined who holds the power to make the first move. She stepped down as CEO in 2023 and transitioned to an executive chair. Still, in March 2025, Wolfe Herd returned to the CEO role following her successor’s departure, proving that stepping back doesn’t mean stepping away. Leadership can evolve. Legacy can expand. Founders like Wolfe Herd remind us that power isn’t just about the first move; it’s also about knowing when to take the next one.

These women—and so many others whose names don’t always make headlines—are living proof that leadership doesn’t have to look, sound, or act like the status quo. They’re not just challenging norms; they’re rewriting them. With purpose. With excellence. And with unapologetic power.

So, let’s stop asking women to contort themselves to fit outdated definitions of leadership and start amplifying the ones who are building better, bolder, more human versions of it.

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Daisy Auger-Domínguez is a C-suite executive, thought leader, and author of Inclusion Revolution and Burnt Out to Lit Up. With decades of experience strengthening workplaces at the intersection of business, culture, and purpose—spanning leadership roles at Moody’s Investors Service, Google, Disney, and Vice Media—she helps leaders do the hard, human work of transforming workplaces without losing their humanity. A sought-after speaker and strategist, Daisy’s insights have been featured in TEDx, Fox’s Good Day New York, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes. Recognized as one of Hispanic Executive's Top 10 Leaders and People en Español's 25 Most Powerful Women, Daisy serves on the Board of Trustees at Bucknell University, her alma mater.