When the System Says No, Then What?

Why I will no longer wait for permission.

My vision was always about more than paid training in female-dominated professions. It was:

✨  Levelling the playing field in education and training (Police, prison officers, apprentices are paid to train).

🧑⚕️ Addressing chronic workforce shortages in healthcare, teaching, and social work.

🫶 Improving access to essential services for the public.

And the energy that drove it all? A desire to expose & disrupt this hidden gender pay gap⚡

In May 2024, I stood on the steps of NZ Parliament to deliver my petition for paid training - the culmination of two years building a movement and a watertight solution.

In June 2025, the Select Committee decided to take no action, citing this was not an “immediate” solution to decades-in-the-making staff shortages.

Not a surprise in the current political climate - but the sense of defeat still stung. And in anticipation of this (arguably inevitable) outcome, I began to question: Is systemic change even the most powerful way to disrupt gender pay gaps?

🤯100 years to close the gender pay gap? Really? Even though closing it could boost global GDP by 35%?

There’s no sound economic reason for this delay. The system is dragging its heels. So, why are we waiting for permission from politicians in no hurry for women’s economic empowerment?

Advocating for system change matters but battling the blinkered is an exhausting way to live. Asking, negotiating, demanding from a system unwilling to recognise the value on the table is a fast track to burnout.

I speak from experience! 💀

We elect leaders to serve us. But whether they do or not - we cannot keep outsourcing our power, hoping someone else will fix this. The deeper injustice is that structural devaluation becomes self-perception. We internalise being ‘lesser,’ often without even realising it.

We can’t control the external system, but we can dismantle the one within. When you know your worth is not negotiable, everything shifts. And when we do this collectively, we don’t just change ourselves. We fundamentally change the game. 🎯

That’s why I’m building a movement of women ready to rewrite the internal narratives that keep us undervalued, underpaid, and underestimated.

Because when women call in the income, influence, and impact that reflect their potential – we don’t just change our own lives. We change the world for the better. 🌍

When the system said no, I was redirected towards a more powerful pathway to disrupt the gender pay gap from the inside out.

❤️🔥The revolution starts within. Ready?