Since the 1970s, the feminist movement has evolved significantly, shifting from a focus on achieving equal rights to fostering platforms that empower women through growth, confidence, and leadership skills. This evolution highlights a critical aspect that many executives overlook: the most significant talent crisis isn’t occurring at entry-level positions, but rather at the mid-career stage, where potential future C-suite leaders often disengage from their organizations.
Tiffany Aude and Yoana Leusin have emerged as innovative contributors to this movement through their Amsterdam-based company, impowr. They have unearthed a pressing concern for European executives: the staggering €540,000 quarterly cost associated with the exodus of highly skilled women is not just a retention issue; it signifies a devastating breakdown in the leadership pipeline that is entirely avoidable.
The Mid-Career Crisis Impacting Organizations
Across Europe, gender equality has gained traction in public policy, underscored by the EU’s 2026–2030 Gender Equality Strategy, which aims to reduce the employment gap and bolster women’s leadership roles. Despite women launching businesses at unprecedented levels—nearly doubling since before the pandemic—representation in C-suite roles continues to lag significantly behind available opportunities.
Statistics reveal a troubling trend: women enter the workforce on comparably equal footing with men (47-53% at the entry level) and excel in junior roles. However, around the 5-7 year mark in their careers, they begin to vanish from the statistics. This phenomenon highlights the need for companies to focus on the development and retention of high-potential female talent already present within their ranks.
For Dutch businesses, losing mid-career women represents not only a loss of talent but a financial drain; replacing each skilled professional costs between €180,000 and €240,000, excluding the loss of institutional knowledge, team dynamics, and competition advantages granted to rival firms.
The Regulatory Landscape Prompting Immediate Action
Now is a pivotal moment for organizations to enhance women’s skill and leadership development. The introduction of the Dutch Gender Balance Act mandates that non-compliant board appointments will be deemed legally invalid without question. Additionally, the EU Pay Transparency Directive, effective by 2027, will enforce public disclosure of gender pay gaps, putting pressure on businesses to either cultivate female leaders or publicly confront their shortcomings.
The proportion of women founders rose significantly before 2019, reaching approximately half of all new ventures in 2023. This indicates that talent is available; the challenge lies in whether companies can nurture it effectively or risk losing it to competitors.
Currently, women fill roughly 29% of C-suite positions, a notable increase from 15-17% a decade ago. However, progress remains slow, hindered by persistent barriers to key career opportunities and systemic biases in promotion practices. If left unaddressed, these mid-career obstacles can develop into a significant leadership gap, adversely affecting innovation and market opportunities while increasing regulatory and investor scrutiny in boardrooms across Europe.
Transformative Solutions from impowr
With over a decade of experience in recruitment and performance management, Tiffany and Yoana recognized a recurring pattern: exceptional women often encounter an invisible ceiling around the mid-career point. In response, they designed an innovative approach through impowr’s corporate workshops to tackle the structural barriers leading to this mid-career exodus.
Rather than generic “women in leadership” sessions, impowr offers tailored workshops that address specific obstacles organizations face:
- Leadership Transition Workshops: Foster acceleration through critical mid-career promotion gateways for high-potential women.
- Confidence & Executive Presence Programs: Equip individuals with the skills to emerge as promotion-ready leaders.
- Strategic Networking & Sponsorship: Develop essential relationships that facilitate career advancement.
- Negotiation & Self-Advocacy: Cultivate the abilities necessary to bridge the promotion gap.
These initiatives have yielded impressive results, with clients reporting a 67% improvement in female leadership retention, a 34% increase in internal promotions, and significantly reduced reliance on external recruitment for senior roles.
The flagship program, Own Your Powr, combines community engagement, workshops, and personalized guidance to offer a transformative experience for mid-career women poised to advance into senior leadership roles. Companies whose employees complete this 12-week program report an 89% retention rate among graduates, in stark contrast to the 60% industry average, along with threefold faster promotion rates within 18 months.
“Thanks to the coaching program Tiffany and Yoana created and delivered, we as a business, were able to attract, retain and upskill female employees. They also designed and implemented a leadership training program up to Director level, with strong focus on personal development. This approach fostered individual growth, boosted engagement and performance. It was also the foundation for organic growth and scalability within the business,” reported a COO at a scale-up tech company.
For organizations that invest in multiple participants, the cumulative impact accelerates the development of female leaders, thereby addressing succession planning challenges proactively.
impowr’s programs are adaptable to various organizational needs, with options ranging from intensive coaching for high-potential individuals to broader culture-changing initiatives.
The Urgency for Immediate Action
Tiffany and Yoana’s mission focuses on widening access to tools necessary for women to convert their potential into real leadership opportunities. Importantly, this initiative serves to boost overall business performance as well.
By effectively blending empathy with structured career development, impowr provides a pathway where confidence becomes a practiced skill and ambition doesn’t necessitate self-sacrifice. This is especially relevant for women in sectors such as sales, technology, finance, pharmaceuticals, and law—industries where European firms often grapple with mid-career retention challenges.
impowr ultimately offers a strategic solution to the leadership pipeline crisis affecting European businesses, addressing the significant financial losses while enhancing competitive advantages in both talent acquisition and retention.
As enforcement of the Dutch Gender Balance Act intensifies and deadlines for EU Pay Transparency loom, alongside mounting demands from major investors for diversity metrics, the window for proactive measures is rapidly closing. The time to act is now.
