S3E2: "I Don't Do Race": Why High Achieving Women of Color Walk Away From Careers They Spent Years Building

I had a patient bleeding to death at two in the morning while my team ignored my orders. So I went to a women in medicine conference looking for help on how to lead through it. The keynote speaker, a diversity expert, had just named every gap women face. I asked her about mine. She said, "I don't do race," ended the Q and A, and walked away.

Fifteen women followed me out of that room. Every one of them asked the same thing: did she give you an answer? Women of color from every specialty in that building had come looking for the exact same solution, and not one of us got it.

This is the episode about what happens when the rooms built to help you have nothing for you. I name the three reasons high-achieving women of color leave careers they spent years building. I take apart the advice that gets handed to us, the advice that quietly makes everything worse. And I tell you what I did instead of quitting.

Two invitations:

• Take the Career Diagnostic
• Join The Strategy Room

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Dr. Qaali Hussein is a double board-certified trauma surgeon, mom of six, and founder of Defiance Academy. New episodes every other week.