Power follows capital—and for too long, women have been excluded from both. Coco Brown, CEO of Athena Alliance, calls on us to claim not just access but ownership in shaping the future of leadership.
By Coco Brown, Founder and CEO of Athena Alliance
When we talk about leadership, the conversation often centers on titles and achievements—the CEO in the boardroom, the founder behind a unicorn startup, the director guiding corporate strategy. But true leadership is about more than holding a seat at the table. It’s about controlling the capital that builds the table in the first place.
For centuries, financial control has dictated who shapes the future. Those who hold the purse strings decide what gets funded, which ideas take flight, and whose voices matter. And for just as long, women have been locked out of this power. The history is staggering: men could own land 250 years before women. They voted 300 years before women. The first U.S. bank was founded in 1781, yet women couldn’t open their own bank accounts until 1974. Business loans without a male cosigner? Not until 1988.
The barriers have been structural, not individual. While men have been encouraged for generations to manage, invest, and build wealth, women were only recently “allowed” into the financial system at all. That late start has lasting consequences—but it also points to the urgency of this moment.
Today, venture capital powers innovation. Ninety percent of all new ideas reach the market through venture funding, and nearly half of today’s public companies began as venture-backed startups. This is the arena where the future is made.
And yet, women remain almost entirely absent: only 1.8 percent of venture capital goes to women-led businesses, just 5 percent of venture-backed CEOs are women, and women hold only 17 percent of private company board seats. These numbers are not a reflection of ambition—they reflect exclusionary networks that remain overwhelmingly male and white.
Meanwhile, women already control more than half of U.S. personal wealth. We are inheriting $30 trillion in generational wealth. We are the primary breadwinners in nearly a third of dual-income households and own 42 percent of U.S. businesses generating nearly $2 trillion annually. The paradox is glaring: women have wealth, but little influence over how capital flows.
This is why we must move beyond inclusion to ownership. A seat at the table isn’t enough. Participation alone keeps us asking for permission. Ownership means directing the flow of capital ourselves.
Another barrier lies in confidence. While 94 percent of women expect to be responsible for their finances at some point, fewer than half feel confident managing them, and only 28 percent feel empowered to act. This is not about capability—it is about cultural conditioning. Boys have been raised for generations to invest and manage wealth; girls have not.
But we have agency now, and with it comes both responsibility and opportunity. If we don’t step into investment decision-making, we remain on the outside, waiting for access. When we do, we become the funders, the creators, and the decision-makers shaping the next generation of business.
At Athena Alliance, we’ve seen what happens when women invest in each other. We’ve raised over $3 million, largely from women investors. We’ve placed more than 500 women on public and private boards. We’ve built a high-performing, diverse board ourselves and employ a team that reflects the future of leadership. Most importantly, we are mobilizing women who are not just leaders in title, but financial power players in action.
That’s why we created the Portfolio of Impact™, a framework that expands the definition of success. Leadership isn’t only about climbing the career ladder—it’s about shaping influence across multiple dimensions.
When women engage across all of these, we don’t just advance our own careers—we transform the business ecosystem itself.
This work is not a zero-sum game. Expanding women’s influence doesn’t mean anyone else loses ground. It means growing the table, expanding opportunities, and ensuring that innovation reflects the diversity of the society it serves. Diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones. Inclusive systems deliver better outcomes.
We are at a tipping point. The wealth shift to women, the rise of women-owned businesses, the growing power of women as breadwinners—all of it points to an extraordinary moment. But tipping points require action. We must educate ourselves, invest in each other, and align our wealth with our values.
The future of leadership will not be defined only by who sits on corporate boards or who runs Fortune 500 companies. It will be defined by who controls capital flows, who shapes investment decisions, and who builds the systems that power innovation. That must be us. It is time for women to stop asking for access and start owning the engines of change. This is our moment to reimagine capital—to claim not just a seat, but the power to build the table itself.
© Athena Alliance 2025
