Since the 1970s, feminist movements have expanded from fighting for equal rights to building platforms that give women practical tools for growth, confidence, and leadership.
But here’s what most executives miss: the real talent crisis isn’t happening at the entry level-it’s happening at the mid-career transition where future C-suite leaders are lost forever.
Tiffany Aude and Yoana Leusin have joined the movement by building impowr, a career and self-development platform helping women unlock the potential they already carry within. Their Amsterdam-based company has discovered something that should keep every European executive awake at night: the €540,000 quarterly cost of losing highly skilled women isn’t just a retention problem-it’s a leadership pipeline catastrophe that’s entirely preventable.
Their mission lands at a critical moment that goes far beyond individual empowerment.
The mid-career crisis that’s costing companies millions
Across Europe, gender equality is moving to the centre of public policy, with the EU’s 2026–2030 Gender Equality Strategy aiming to halve the employment gap and expand women’s leadership. Meanwhile, women are founding businesses at record rates – nearly double pre-pandemic levels – yet confidence and representation in C-level roles still lag behind opportunity.
The mathematics are brutal: women enter companies at near-parity with their male counterparts (47-53% at entry level), perform exceptionally well through junior roles, but then something happens.
Right as women approach the 5-7 year mark, they start to disappear from the statistics. This isn’t about hiring more women, it’s about developing and retaining the high-potential female talent already in your organization.
For Dutch companies facing the Netherlands’ position as dead last among 89 countries for skilled talent availability, losing mid-career women represents a catastrophic waste of developed talent that costs €180,000-€240,000 per replacement, not including the knowledge drain, team disruption, and competitive advantage handed to rivals.
The regulatory pressure that’s creating urgency
If there was ever a “right time” to double down on women’s skill & leadership development, it’s now.
The Dutch Gender Balance Act makes non-compliant board appointments legally null and void: not challenged, not questioned, but completely invalid.
With EU Pay Transparency Directive requiring public disclosure of gender pay gaps by 2027, companies face a stark choice: develop female leaders now or explain publicly why they failed.
Before 2019, women founders stood at 28%. But in the past few years, that figure has nearly doubled – recent data show that women started about half of all new businesses in 2023. The talent exists. The question is whether your company will develop it or lose it to competitors.
As of 2024, women occupy roughly 29% of C-suite positions – up from a scandalously low 15–17% a decade ago, but progress remains glacial. While the struggle women face with self-advocacy and confidence in self-nomination for leadership roles plays a role, the central issue lies in unequal access to pivotal career opportunities, persistent structural barriers, and systemic biases in promotion and sponsorship practices. Left unaddressed, these mid-career blockages, the so-called “broken rungs”, compound into the leadership gaps we see at the top, resulting in lower innovation, missed market opportunities, and mounting regulatory and investor pressure in European boardrooms.
The impowr solution: Strategic female employee development driving ROI
Having spent over a decade in recruitment, sales, and performance management, Tiffany and Yoana watched the same pattern unfold across scale-ups and corporations: exceptional women hitting an invisible ceiling around the 5-7 year career mark. So they designed something different.
impowr‘s corporate workshops address the systemic barriers that create the mid-career exodus. These aren’t generic “women in leadership” sessions but tailored interventions that address specific organizational challenges:
- Leadership Transition Workshops: Accelerate high-potential women through the critical mid-career promotion gateway
- Confidence & Executive Presence Programs: Transform internal talent into promotion-ready leaders
- Strategic Networking & Sponsorship: Build the relationships that drive career advancement
- Negotiation & Self-Advocacy: Develop the skills that close the promotion gap
Clients report 67% improvement in female leadership retention, 34% increase in internal promotions, and elimination of costly external recruitment for senior roles.
The flagship Own Your Powr program combines community, workshops, and personal guidance into a transformative journey designed specifically for mid-career women ready to step into senior leadership.
So what’s the business impact? Companies whose employees complete the 12-week program report 89% retention rate for program graduates (vs. 60% industry average) and 3x 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” reports a COO at a scale-up tech company.
For companies investing in multiple participants, the compound effect creates a critical mass of developed female leaders ready for advancement—solving the succession planning crisis before it reaches the boardroom.
Rather than a single formula, impowr programs adapt to different stages of organizational need. Some companies choose intensive Powr Coaching for high-potential individuals on leadership tracks, while others implement Powr Workbooks for broader organizational culture change.
Why we have to act now
For Tiffany and Yoana, the drive is clear: widening access to tools that help women translate potential into leadership. But they’ve discovered something crucial-this isn’t just about empowering women. It’s about optimizing business performance.
By combining empathy with structured career development, impowr creates a pathway where confidence becomes a practiced skill and ambition doesn’t require self-sacrifice.
For women working in fields like sales, tech, finance, pharma, and law-exactly the sectors where European companies struggle most with mid-career retention-the programme offers strategic career acceleration that directly addresses the “broken rung” problem.
What impowr ultimately delivers to companies is a strategic solution to the leadership pipeline crisis that’s costing European businesses millions while providing sustainable competitive advantage in talent acquisition and retention.
With Dutch Gender Balance Act enforcement intensifying, EU Pay Transparency deadlines approaching, and major investors demanding diversity metrics, the window for proactive action is narrowing rapidly.
The time to act is now.
