Sports
Female Leadership: Why Corporate Systems Must Change
Aline Carvalho explains why training women is not enough if company culture and corporate structures remain unchanged.
Aline Carvalho and Bruna Mahn discuss the real challenges facing female leaders across corporate business and sports. The executive and endurance athlete examines how unconscious bias, tokenism, and a lack of true representation overburden women at the top.
When a woman finally reaches a senior leadership role, feelings of self-doubt regarding merit or delivery are not uncommon. For Aline Carvalho—an executive with over two decades of experience and an endurance athlete—this feeling of inadequacy does not stem from an individual deficit, but rather from an environment designed to constantly question a woman's presence.
In an episode of Stemma Performance, hosted by Bruna Mahn, Aline deconstructs the idea that women's professional advancement relies on cookie-cutter corporate self-help formulas. On the agenda is the urgent need to reshape organizational structures rather than trying to "fix" the women who make it to the top.
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The System Under Scrutiny: Beyond False Empowerment
Much of traditional female empowerment discourse tends to focus on individual behavior: recommending a more assertive posture, communication shifts, and even wardrobe adaptations. Aline cautions that this approach is rooted in the flawed premise that the woman is at fault, when in reality, the company's culture is simply unprepared to integrate her.
To break this cycle, the essential first step is corporate education on unconscious bias. Creating an environment grounded in psychological safety allows everyday recurring behaviors—such as frequently talking over women in meetings—to be called out, turning isolated interventions into collective learning for executives and leadership teams.
The Risks of Tokenism and the 'Wonder Woman' Trap
Increasing female representation in power is essential to shifting the landscape, but mere numerical inclusion to satisfy market demands can create distortions. Aline highlights the risk of tokenism: when an organization promotes a single woman merely to serve as a showcase in annual reports and investor fundraising.
This practice places a disproportionate burden on the individual. The executive suddenly carries the weight of representing her entire gender, takes on parallel institutional responsibilities, and must navigate unattainable expectations of perfection. In many cases, women are also elevated to leadership positions precisely during institutional crises, when the risk of failure is already imminent.
Information, Community, and Parallels with Sport
The dynamics of gender expectations and stereotypes are not confined to corporate boardrooms. In athletics, prejudices surrounding posture, femininity, and aesthetics often fall upon female athletes pursuing high performance and standout results.
As Bruna Mahn highlighted, strengthening female communities and increasing access to information are vital tools for women to identify unconscious dynamics, set clear boundaries, and educate their surroundings—reasserting the freedom to lead and compete without compromising their own identity.
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