Think of a moment when you had to prove your worth to someone, even though it should have been blindingly obvious.

Why do we still have to do that?

For women, that moment often comes with an extra layer. The discomfort of claiming your own value out loud, when we have been taught that doing so is somehow too much.

Recently I had to make a case for something that should have been blindingly obvious. And I have been here before. Told it was a done deal, and then it wasn’t.

This time I approached it differently.
Not with defensiveness. Not with “I deserve this.” Just with openness and facts. I laid out the evidence clearly, contextualised what needed contextualising, and made it as easy as possible for the other side to say yes.

And then I waited for the resistance I had learned to expect. It did not come.

I got exactly what I asked for. To the letter.

The shock of that moment stayed with me. Not because the outcome was surprising on paper. But because somewhere I had been bracing for the fight that never arrived. Just quiet. Ah. That was easy.

How you make the case matters as much as the case itself. Not louder, not harder. Just clearer, more open, easier to say yes to. Give people what they need to decide, and where possible, options to choose from. Not a corner to back out of.

💭 Have you ever been surprised by how differently something landed when you changed your approach rather than your argument?