You Can’t Win. So Win.

Backlash, no matter how centralized and oppressive, isn’t a sign of victory for those trying to stop progress. It’s proof they’re losing.

I met Timothy Leary on a trip to LA with my friend, Brenda, who knew him well. He was an old man who would die a few years later, but he still had a strong spirit and a keen mind. I asked him many questions that afternoon but his answer to one has stayed with me. I wanted to know what had changed the most over the course of his life. Without losing a beat and with a serious expression he replied, “women.”

Surprised by his answer, I asked what he meant. He explained that at the beginning of his adult life women were a side show of little consequence outside of romantic adventures. “But now,” he smiled, pointing to several women nearby running computers, editing video footage, and arranging food platters, “they’re central to everything.”

Leary’s point wasn’t just that women had changed, but that the world had transformed in response to them. Women’s assertion of equality shifted their roles, their prospects, and their independence. It also forced politics, leadership, and branding to evolve in response.

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A Cultural Earthquake

Women’s transformation over the past century wasn’t just about entering the workforce or gaining legal rights—it was a shift in self-perception. They stopped seeing themselves as secondary and began to act with the confidence of full autonomy. Slowly but surely, brands dropped depictions of women as subservient to men. Leadership traits began to incorporate “softer” expressions of power and more collaborative approaches to management. Politics had to recognize new priorities.

Growing up I knew women were fighting for more rights, but I didn’t know how fundamentally it would change my life. I didn’t know it would influence everything from food preparation to car design, from basketball to gene editing. I saw that it was making women more assertive, but I didn’t realize it was also making them more interesting and dimensional. I didn’t understand how deeply profound and significant this shift was.

In retrospect, the women’s movement writ large is on par with other seismic cultural transformations like literacy, democracy, and industrialization. It’s also just as irreversible. Once people learned to read, they couldn’t be controlled in the same way. Once people believed they had a right to self-governance, monarchies crumbled. Once manufacturing reshaped labor, societies reorganized around new economic realities.

When a group embraces equality as their baseline reality, there’s no return to subjugation. In fact, there’s a steady and unrelenting progression forward, as women’s accomplishments substantiate. Women now outnumber men in college enrollment, likely improving their future economic and leadership prospects even more. Major companies, media networks, and political offices are increasingly run by women—not as anomalies, but as norms. The idea that a woman should “defer” or “step aside” seems absurd to a younger generation raised on female athletes, CEOs, and content creators leading global movements.

Once a group collectively believes in their full autonomy, they do not un-believe it —no matter how many Executive Orders are signed.

Women’s conviction in their rightful place is now woven into culture, economics, and generational identity. It’s not a trend; it’s a fundamental reordering of power. The mental shift isn’t in process. It has already occurred, and not just for women, but also for men who have experienced women as their peers, bosses, and collaborators. This is why authoritarian movements must rely on force to suppress women—because the internal belief system has already changed. This is why backlash movements feel so extreme right now.

There’s No Road Back

The desire to turn back the clock on women’s gains is nothing new. Throughout history, there have been efforts to force women back into traditional roles, particularly after periods of social expansion. But these attempts consistently fail because they misunderstand a fundamental truth: social evolution, once embedded in economic systems, becomes irreversible.

History provides proof. After WWII, government propaganda urged millions of women to abandon their wartime jobs so men could reclaim them. Many did—but their experience of economic independence had already reshaped their expectations, laying groundwork for the feminist movements of the 1960s.

In the 1980s, conservative forces successfully blocked the Equal Rights Amendment, yet couldn’t prevent women from gaining economic independence and workplace authority. Most recently, the Dobbs decision aimed to restrict reproductive rights, but instead catalyzed one of the largest voter mobilizations in history.

Each backlash inadvertently strengthened women’s position, making their economic might more visible and embedded. Today, they comprise nearly half the U.S. workforce and are important breadwinners in most American households. They control or influence roughly 85% of consumer purchasing decisions, steering everything from real estate to financial markets. They hold 60% of all personal wealth and over half of all stocks. This isn’t just participation—it’s economic dominance.

The pushback we are witnessing now—attacks on reproductive rights, gender studies, DEI initiatives, or female professionals—is simply the latest attempt to legislate women back to a 1950’s version of their gender. We might as well try to uninvent electricity. Much of the world has already adapted to women as decision-makers, economic forces, and political powerhouses. Any attempt to reduce their influence will only generate resistance, mobilization, and ultimately, greater progress.

The Nike commercial that aired during the Super Bowl is a master class in this type of resurgence. While some brands erased their DEI associations and cowered behind genderless cartoon characters, Nike put female power and perseverance front and center. With Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love driving the momentum, Grammy-winning female rapper Doechii delivers a rapid-fire recap of the ways women are restricted—and the ways they fight back—before closing with an undeniable battle cry: “You Can’t Win. So Win.” I watched it in a sports bar in Mexico and even here the crowd rejoiced.

Backlash is a Springboard

Backlash, no matter how centralized and oppressive, isn’t a sign of victory. It signals desperation. Again, history makes the case. The fiercest resistance often emerges just before transformative change becomes uncontested. The most aggressive opposition to women’s suffrage came just before the 19th Amendment passed. Corporate resistance to workplace equity peaked just before anti-discrimination laws became standard. The more the #MeToo movement was dismissed as an “overreaction,” the more people came forward, forcing a reckoning.

When it comes to women (and many other marginalized groups), there is a direct relationship between backlash and mobilization. Those who previously avoided activism—suburban moms, corporate professionals, even conservative-leaning voters—will become more engaged as their daily lives are disrupted. And unlike past waves of feminism, today’s movement has far more male allies. Men who grew up with female decision-makers and ambitious daughters are much less inclined to support reactionary policies.

The forces resisting women’s newly earned position are not defending an enduring way of life. They are clinging to an outdated model that no longer fits the world as it is. Yes, laws can be repealed, but expectations can’t. Rights can be temporarily restricted, but knowledge remains unrestrained. Institutions can try to push women out, but modern economies can’t function without them.

The Tantrum and the Tipping Point

For those who see the current backlash as a genuine threat, I understand your anxiety. It’s exhausting to watch rights be challenged, representation questioned, and progress treated as negotiable. But I also see it for what it is—a desperate attempt to contain something that cannot be contained. With that awareness, I do what women like Oprah, Michelle Obama, and Taylor Swift have advocated in different ways: Take a deep breath, review the facts, and shake it off.

Entrenched but eroding authority never surrenders gracefully. It lashes out, throws obstacles in the way, and tests whether resistance will wane. But women’s equality is no longer a fragile policy or a nascent cultural trend. It is a realignment of power that has altered every facet of society. There’s no rolling it back.

Of course, these current attacks aren’t harmless—they create real challenges, especially for vulnerable women in restrictive states. But those regressions won’t hold. They will cause harm and force battles that should have long been settled, but they will also ensure that progress is reaffirmed with even greater force.

When that happens, there will need to be cleanup on aisle W thanks to all the silly backsliding from institutions and corporations who should know better. Policies will need to be reinstated and organizations rebalanced. But I see no existential crisis here, no real risk of regression, only the continued forward push of an inevitable tide.

So, regardless of your gender, stay engaged, but don’t panic. Be aware, but not afraid. The real question isn’t whether women will continue to lead, innovate, and shape the future. It’s how long this particular tantrum will last before it, too, becomes another footnote in history.

Your Turn

It’s hard to sit back and wait for sanity to return. I’m distracting myself by reading books about notable women, listening to new music by top female performers, and learning more about the women’s movement. I’d love some more ideas — what works for you?

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