She's Responsible, But Is He Accountable?

Welcome to Lead With Inclusion! This newsletter is a resource for EVERY professional. Whether you’re a manager ready to be a more inclusive leader, or an employee ready to be a champion for equity in your workplace, inclusive actions lead to inclusive outcomes. Leading with inclusion simply means starting with inclusive actions in everything you do. It means identifying the areas where bias is at work, and shifting mindsets to change behaviors.

If you’re not sure where to begin, start here.

Two women made headlines recently. Not for their accomplishments — though both have resumes that should command respect on their own. No, they made headlines because they were forced to explain, justify, and answer for the behavior of men.

And I’m frustrated.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat for a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee about the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein — crimes committed by men. She told lawmakers she had no knowledge of Epstein’s activities. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has not been accused of wrongdoing. Yet the spectacle demanded that she testify. That she answer. That she sit in the chair.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Seattle, Hilary Knight — captain of the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team, five-time Olympian, and the most decorated player in the history of U.S. women’s hockey — should have been celebrating the team’s gold medal victory at the Winter Olympics. Instead, she was in front of reporters, explaining why a remark made during a phone call between the men’s team and the President was, in her words, “a distasteful joke.”

She said something that resonated with many of us and made us think:

“It’s a great teaching point to really shine light on how women should be championed for their amazing feats. And now I have to sort of sit in front of you and explain someone else’s behavior. It’s not my responsibility.”

It’s not. Her. Responsibility!

And yet, there she was.

Lead With Inclusion

This is Women’s History Month. The 2026 theme is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.” And the irony is almost too bitter to swallow.

We celebrate women for shaping the future while simultaneously putting them in the hot seat to answer for men’s past. We honor their leadership in March while requiring them to testify, explain, and absorb the consequences of someone else’s behavior the other eleven months of the year.

Think about it: Hillary Clinton was asked to testify about the trafficking crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and the actions of men who associated with him. Whatever your political views, the pattern is unmistakable. The woman is in the chair. The men who should be there are not.

And Hilary Knight? She outscored opponents 33–2 on her way to a gold medal. She scored the tying goal in the final with two minutes left. She became the all-time leader in Olympic goals and points among American hockey players — men or women. And instead of being asked about any of that, she was asked to respond to someone else’s joke. Someone else’s behavior. Someone else’s lapse in judgment.

As Knight also said: “These women are amazing, and whatever is going on should never outshine or minimize their work and our success on the world stage.”

She shouldn’t have had to say that. But she did. Because that’s what women are still expected to do.

Be An Inclusive Leader

Let’s translate this to your workplace.

How many women in your organization are on the chopping block right now — answering for the decisions, failures, or behaviors of men who should be held accountable themselves? How many are spending their energy explaining, cleaning up, or absorbing consequences that aren’t theirs to carry?

And how would you know?

That’s the question I want leaders to sit with this month.

Because this pattern doesn’t only play out on Capitol Hill or on SportsCenter. It happens in conference rooms, in performance reviews, in restructurings, and in the quiet reassignment of blame. The woman who inherits a failing project started by a male predecessor and is then held responsible for its outcome. The female executive asked to “smooth things over” after a male colleague’s inappropriate conduct. The woman in HR who is tasked with “handling” the fallout from decisions she had no part in making.

If you are a leader, you need to be asking:

• Who is being asked to testify — formally or informally — for someone else’s behavior in my organization?

• Who carries the burden of explanation when something goes wrong — and does that pattern follow gender lines?

• When accountability is assigned, is it applied equally? Or does it conveniently land on the people with the least institutional power?

• What mechanisms do I have in place to even find out? And more importantly — do I actually want to know?

That last question is the hardest one. Because wanting to know means being willing to act on what you find. And acting means disrupting the very patterns that keep some people comfortable while others absorb the cost.

Inclusive leadership has never been about comfort. It’s about courage. It’s about accountability. And it’s about ensuring that when the hard questions come, the right people are in the chair.

Take Action

Women’s History Month isn’t just a time to post graphics and celebrate firsts. It’s a time to examine how women are treated right now — in your organization, on your team, in your meetings.

If you don’t have the mechanisms in place to surface these patterns, that’s not an excuse. That’s a starting point.

It’s why I created the Leadership Awareness Profile – or what we internally call the “Leadership Reality Check”.

The Leadership Awareness Profile is a free, five-minute self-assessment designed to surface the gap between how you see your leadership and how your team actually experiences it — across five dimensions including accountability, inclusion and fairness, and psychological safety. It won't tell you everything. But it will show you where your blind spots might be hiding. And when women in your organization are carrying accountability that isn't theirs, those blind spots are exactly what allow it to continue.

Because here is what I know: you can't fix what you refuse to see. And you can't lead with inclusion if your team doesn’t agree that you do.

Hilary Knight said it best: "It's not my responsibility."

She's right. It's yours.

If you’re ready to stop asking women to carry the weight that belongs elsewhere, get your Leadership Reality Check now, because the only way work gets better is by deliberate design. And that design starts with the willingness to look.

About Stacey Gordon:

Stacey Gordon is a Global Talent Advisor, Bias Disrupter and an unapologetic evangelist for inclusion. As the Founder of Rework Work, she works with leaders to anchor decisions in action based in three guiding fundamental management principles, while facilitating mindset shifts. She is a global keynote speaker, Top Voice on LinkedIn and a popular LinkedIn Learning [IN]structor reaching nearly two million unique learners who enjoy her courses. Want to work with Stacey live? Consider booking her for your next strategy mastermind session, conference keynote, leadership development meeting or consulting engagement.