Casey Stoney could sense disrespect the moment she entered the room. She was a celebrated England women’s national soccer team captain, a trailblazer and a legend of her sport. But to coach it, throughout her 20s and 30s, she ventured into a series of educational courses designed to prepare her for a cutthroat profession. And in most of them, she found what countless aspiring leaders have over the years:
Among dozens of male pupils and instructors, she was often the only woman.
She’d sit at tables feeling “excluded” from conversations. Male peers would pick one another’s brains; Stoney, meanwhile, “felt like people wouldn't talk to you, and wouldn't engage with you.