The extremely accomplished and beautiful Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan got herself some major world points this week when she wrote an open letter to to girls everywhere as part of CNN’s “Girl Rising” project. I won’t put the whole letter here because it is quite long but I will give you a small but inspiring excerpt:

We know that in every country around the world, healthy, educated girls can play a crucial role in stabilizing societies, resolving conflicts, bolstering democracies, strengthening economies, and nurturing healthy and educated children.

But they can’t do it alone.

Role models can inspire. Campaigns can motivate. But if we want all girls everywhere to rise up, then we must find them, befriend them and support them.

That means going outside our comfort zones. Maybe they’re recovering from civil war in Sierra Leone, like Mariama — now educated and a popular radio DJ. Maybe they’re trapped in servitude in Nepal, like Suma — now an activist working to free others. Maybe they’re living in slums in India, like Ruksana — now strong and in school.

Though the “Girl Rising” project is less than a year old, fighting for young women’s rights is nothing new to Abdullah.

As Honorary Global Chair of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, HM Queen Rania lends her support to a global partnership of organizations from both the United Nations family and civil society that is committed to achieving gender equality in education. In 2009 this role led her to a visit at the Young Women’s Leadership School in East Harlem. She told the students there, “I want you, girls with voices, to speak up and shout out for girls whose cries fall silent.  I want you to fight for them, as others are fighting for you. I want you to pull up another girl, and help her stand tall and strong. I want you to be great, and inspire greatness in others. If anyone can do it, you can.”

In Jordan, HM Queen Rania’s home, women are fighting for their rights. Among Jordanians with advanced degrees, two-thirds of those without jobs are women even though 55 percent of graduates over the past decade have been female, according to the The New York Times. Women do not play a role in key leadership positions.

When a National Dialogue Committee was appointed last year to weigh reforms proposed by the king, only four of its 52 members were women.

This is why HM Queen Rania is fighting so hard for women.  In March she wrote a piece for The Huffington Post about the “spirit of sisterhood.” She wrote:

Today, as a result of sustained investment, women in the Middle East and North Africa region are healthier and far better educated than ever before. They outnumber men at university. Sadly, though, that success does not yet translate to the job market, so nations are not reaping the rewards of that investment. A new report by the World Bank concludes that women are hampered by legal and social factors. In other words, it’s a question of changing mindsets.

That’s why it’s important that the girls and young women of our region have strong female role models: women who successfully juggle the demands of a career and the demands of motherhood.

This is why she is supporting the Girl Rising initiative. In case you aren’t familiar, it is a global campaign to raise funds to help girl’s education. As part of the campaign a documentary was produced, under the same name, that tells the stories of girls from around the world and how the power of education can impact their lives significantly and the planet. Watch the trailer below (especially if you need a good cry!)

Though her life may look more like Cinderella’s than most (seriously the woman is stunning), Abdullah knows what’s up when it comes to the power of women and young girls. In her letter to girls all over the world she wrote:

Marketing and stereotyping combine to have us believe that you’re also made of pink dresses, pigtails, dolls, ringlets, ribbons, bows, and tiaras. That you like cupcakes. That all you will want to be are wives and mothers. That you’re more “inclined” to the arts and “better suited” to caring professions like teaching and nursing. And, maybe, that’s true for some. But my daughter Salma teaches me every day that there’s so much more to you — and for you.

This Queen knows the deal.

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

Welcome to our new column, The Essentials. Every week we will take a look at what essentials a woman with an awesome job needs to get through her day. Whether it’s Apps, music, gummy worms, red lipstick or a power bag, we’ve got the scoop. 

Name: Jessica Bennett

Title: Editor-at-Large for LeanIn.org, freelance journalist

What do you think of the state of journalism right now? Do you think it’s going in a good direction?

Well, you’re talking to a person who left a [dying] magazine job [at Newsweek] for “the future” at Tumblr, only to get laid off barely a year later. I think you can see it half-full or half-empty: it’s a hard time to be a journalist, you have to be scrappier than ever, but it’s also an exciting time. There are new methods of storytelling, social and citizen journalism is changing the game, and you get to be a jack of all trades.

How many hours a week do you work? How is your exhaustion level?

Right now I’m working more than I should be, because I’m finishing up a ton of freelance assignments and transitioning into a new job. But I try to keep a good work balance, and sleep is on my top three favorite things to do.

What pieces of technology do you always carry? iPhone, tablet, laptop?

My iPhone with a big ass crack down the center of it.

What shoes do you wear for meetings or presentations?

I’m a flats girl. Although currently I work from home, so it’s rare I actually put shoes on at all.

What’s in your junk food drawer?

Not devoting a precious drawer in my NYC apartment to junk food, but I love a good Haribo gummy candy from the bodega.

Drink at happy hour?

Whiskey

What items do you always keep under your desk or in your bag?

Whiskey

Exercise of choice?

Does walking up four flights of stairs count?

Blogs or sites you read on breaks at work?

I’m lucky because it’s part of my job to read sites, so I don’t have to sneak. I read The Times every morning. I get most of my other news from social.

Art work credit: Allison Everett

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

In what seems like a scene straight out of the television show Ally McBeal, a Tennessee circuit judge issued a memo about female lawyers adhering to the dress code after one female attorney appeared before him in a sleeveless blouse. Circuit Judge Royce Taylor wrote in the memo:

The unanimous opinion was that the women attorneys were not being held to the same standard as the men. I have advised some women attorneys that a jacket with sleeves below the elbow is appropriate or a professional dress equivalent… Your personal appearance in court is a reflection upon the entire legal profession.

According to the local legal community, female lawyers have been pushing the lines a little bit by wearing blouses, miniskirts, and sweatpants in court. We have been talking a lot about dress codes this summer and this is a great example. The legal industry is one of the toughest when it comes to attire for women. There is no casual Friday. If you are in court you have to be dressed impeccably because if you aren’t, clearly people notice.

“A lawyer never wants his or her appearance to be the focus of the court’s or jury’s attention,” said U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan. She told The Pittsburgh Post about how once she fell on the ice before a court appearance, ripping two holes in her pantyhose. She could either take them off or go with the shredded look and she didn’t have much time to decide. She kept them on out of fear of baring her legs in court. The judge didn’t say a word. Okay so most of the time they notice or they realized the woman had no choice and decided to remain covered up for fear of being called a bare-legged hussy in the courtroom.

The real pressure to dress perfectly and respectably comes from the fact that these lawyers are in court and dealing with the law. It is extremely important and their attire needs to reflect and respect what they are doing. But in a world where casual has become the norm, it’s hard out there for a female lawyer. Her friends are considered fancy when they wear the slightly longer shorts instead of the jean cutoffs and this woman may actually be required to wear pantyhose when she is in court in July. Tennessee image consultant Mila Grigg told USA Today personal fashion choices clashing with professional decorum are especially pronounced with the millennial generation who, as she said, “have a different standard for what professional looks like.”

Kat Griffin, founder of Corporette.com, a site that advises professional women on how to dress told me, “Lawyers in particular have to adhere to conservative rules for clothes, primarily because they are very rarely speaking for themselves. If a judge or jury hates you, you want it to be because they heard and considered your client’s argument… not because your clothing conveyed a lack of respect, or offended them in some other manner.”

This all makes sense and I would be more comfortable with my lawyer in a great suit than jeggings but do women have it worse then men when it comes to courtroom attire? Law is still very much a boys’ club in some ways and so women are expected to not only prove themselves as lawyers but look as sharp as possible. At the Chicago law firm Stowell & Friedman, Linda Friedman and Mary Stowell make themselves put on pantyhose whenever they have to be in court. “It’s hard enough practicing law in federal court, which is still very much a boys’ club,” Friedman says. “We don’t feel it’s right to take a chance when it might hurt our clients.”

The rest of the workplace may be changing when it comes to attire but according to Taylor, that change stops in the courtroom. Good luck to any female lawyer who enters it!

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

I think FOMO really started for me in college. Actually it probably started in high school but I wasn’t as aware of it. I was not a crazy partier in college but I definitely felt I needed to go out on the weekends (and the college weekend is defined as Thursday, Friday, Saturday, sometimes Tuesday for a mixer, occasionally Sunday) because I was afraid I would miss out on an opportunity to build friendships, make memories, or you know, see a guy do a really good keg stand.

This need to go out every time someone was having a birthday party, hosting a happy hour, going to a museum, sunbathing in the park, running an errand, etc., was starting to make me really tired. I was exhausted from going out and then worrying about not going out if I didn’t. It was tough.

I was always so worried that if I didn’t go out that night to that amazing sports bar that somehow I would be missing out. I mean, who knows? Maybe that Happy Hour at Patty O’Briens would change my life. Thankfully someone, perhaps the internet, diagnosed this feeling I was having as Fear of Missing Out or FOMO for short. And it turns out, I wasn’t alone.

FOMO has become a real problem for Gen Y mostly due to our ability to inform all of our friends what we are doing every second of the day. Planning on staying in on a Friday night? Don’t look at your Facebook feed or you will see the kid that you had math class with in high school is going to a Jay-Z concert which therefore means your life is worthless. New York Times writer Jenna Wortham explored the FOMO syndrome in 2011. She wrote:

When we scroll through pictures and status updates, the worry that tugs at the corners of our minds is set off by the fear of regret, according to Dan Ariely, author of “Predictably Irrational” and a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. He says we become afraid that we’ve made the wrong decision about how to spend our time.

Streaming social media have an immediacy that is very different from, say, a conversation over lunch recounting the events of the previous weekend. When you see that your friends are sharing a bottle of wine without you — and at that very moment — “you can imagine how things could be different,” Professor Ariely said.

I still definitely have FOMO, but somewhere around the age of 26 it started to get better. I would like to say it is because you mature and stop comparing yourself to others and realize that you will still have your friends even if you don’t go and meet them in Brooklyn to go to a flea market. But I actually think it is more because you are just more tired now. Hopefully it is a bit of both. Go out if you want to go out but don’t force yourself. Sometimes sitting on your couch and relaxing is all you need. I call it FOMOBMCISC (Fear of Missing Out But My Couch is So Comfy.)

Ask Carly Heitlinger, Director of New Media at Levo League, if she’s ever experienced FOMO as a social media maven!

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

In case you hadn’t heard, the internet is pretty darn big, so we don’t always have the time to cover everything. That is why we have launched a new column on Levo League that will round up all the great things we are reading, seeing, Tweeting, and scrolling through. We think this collection will help keep your finger right on the pulse (and make you sound impressive at your Friday Happy Hour) without all the leg work! So here we go:

Smiling at work may be hurting your career. Does frowning help? (Jezebel)

A fascinating look at how technology has left us more alone than ever and why attention is the greatest gift you can give someone. (The New York Times)

Are Gloria Steinem and Katie Holmes BFFs? (New York Mag)

This proposed New York law could mean big changes for the fashion industry when it comes to underage models. (Refinery 29)

The Tonys, held this past Sunday, marked a huge year for women on Broadway. Girls do just want to have fun! (L.A. Times)

Have we reached the end of the battle of the sexes? (The Atlantic)

In celebration of Father’s Day, lessons we learned from our favorite TV dads. (Glamour.com)

Meet Tracy Britt: Warren Buffett’s rising star! (The Wall Street Journal)

Does no one take you seriously unless you’re married? (Cosmopolitan)

These are the states where employees care the least about their jobs. Depressing. (Business Insider)

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

Last summer we were a bit spoiled. We had Political Animals, a USA Network mini-series about a former first lady who became Secretary of State and then decided to run for President (I wonder who that could be based on?), Lena Dunham’s tour de force Girls, and VEEP starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as the vice president of the United States. The critically acclaimed Bunheads, from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, also debuted last summer. None of the characters on this show were perfect but they were all strong, smart, and super intriguing. When it comes to finding strong female characters this summer our options are comparatively pretty darn bleak.

First of all, summer is pretty rough anyway when it comes to finding good television. I mean our regular shows that get us through the year are on hiatus. Game of Thrones just ended and Mad Men is almost over. Get ready to hear some crickets on Mondays in your office.

But sometimes summer can be an opportunity for lesser-known networks to produce something amazing. A television diamond in the rough, if you will. After all Mad Men premiered on AMC on July 19, 2007. Before that no one watched anything on AMC except old movies and the cast was full of no-names (very handsome no-names, but still no-names). Mad Men, now in its sixth season, is a critically praised hit and has a cult-like following.

But I do not think we are going to get a Mad Men this summer. Not with shows like this to choose from: Devious Maids, Mistresses, and Princesses: Long Island. Maids, mistresses, and princesses? What year is it? 1942? Give me some vampires, lawyers, and doctors with emotional problems!

I would say after doing some research I should give Devious Maids (Lifetime) more of a chance as it is produced by Eva Longoria and features an all-Latina cast (something hardly ever seen on TV), but the promos and marketing for the series are getting absolutely slammed for perpetuating stereotypes. The show may actually be good but the marketing campaign is ruining it. Watch the trailer below:

And then we have Mistresses (ABC.) This is another poorly-marketed show. Basically they are trying to sell the sexy aspect of sinning, but if you watch this show the women are actually all very conflicted about their out of wedlock affairs. The show is about four intelligent women but we have to watch them do incredibly thoughtless things that not only impact their marriages and family but also their careers. What’s sexy about that? This show is supposed to fill a Desperate Housewives void but Mistresses is just not doing it for me.

Finally we have the reality show Princesses: Long Island. Now, I won’t lie. I actually love this show. Any woman that wears one of those headbands around her head with a leopard-print maxi dress for the occasion of going to the grocery store is super intriguing to me. But, it is a wee bit depressing that none of the women on the show — which focuses on six unmarried women in their late 20s born and bred in Long Island who tend to care more about the superficial things in life — seem to have jobs or any career aspirations (except for one). Their biggest goal in life is to find a husband so they can move from their parent’s payroll to their hubbies’. Entertainment wise it is amazing. There have already been fights about Facebook poking, stolen boyfriends, and threats to punch someone in the face and we aren’t even on the third episode yet. Role model wise though it is a pretty pitiful.

This is depressing considering television is often hailed as a better place for women, in terms of power, creativity, and female representation in characters, as compared to film. Meghan Casserly of Forbes, in an article titled ”Is Television The Best Place for Women In Hollywood?” wrote:

From Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, whose Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice success has been built on the backs of female characters to new girls Lena Dunham and Liz Meriwether, the small screen is increasingly the space for female screenwriters, producers, and directors to showcase interesting female plot lines and characters — without being ghettoized by the trappings of chick-flick labels.

But television isn’t totally perfect. According to The Center for Study of Women in Television and Film, in 2011 women made up 26 percent of all creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and directors of photography, which is up one point from the previous year and five points from the 1997-98 season. But 68 percent of all shows don’t even have a female writer on staff. “It’s harder; there are less women looking for work. It’s easier to have an all-white male writing staff,” said Dan Harmon, the creator and showrunner of the NBC sitcom Community.

And clearly this summer, we are seeing the less perfect side of television. We are seeing the side that is dressed up in a maid costume slapping another woman for stealing her boyfriend.

So you may get some laughs this summer (and some fashion tips) but for now, I’d stick to New Girl (created by Liz Meriwether, and produced by and starring Zooey Deschanel) reruns.

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

This is the year of Superman. The latest film adaptation of the comic book hero, Man of Steel, comes out this week and April marked the 75th anniversary of the man with the red cape. Now I like Superman as much as the next person and I am totally look forward to seeing British cutie Henry Cavill rock those blue tights, but I am actually more excited to see this film’s depiction of Lois Lane.

I know Superman is really strong and has saved the earth on multiple occasion, but he would be nobody without Lois Lane. The two have been the stars of the comics since 1938, as well as multiple television series and many movies. Lane was the foil to showing us the real Superman and the real Clark Kent. Yes, it took her a little longer than most to not recognize a man when he took off his glasses, but we won’t hold that against her. She had spunk, guts, and was an excellent journalist. I mean she has been working at The Daily Planet for like 75 years which is pretty amazing considering the state of journalism today.

And though Lane somehow always finds herself needing to be rescued I have never thought of her as the classic damsel in distress. Mostly because she usually had a quippy wit about her. But in the last film adaptation of Superman in 2006, Superman Returns, Kate Bosworth’s portrayal was rather weak and forgettable. That is why I am pretty psyched to see Oscar-nominated actress Amy Adams give it a whirl. (I will even forgive the filmmakers for going against the usual portrayal of Lane as a feisty brunette.) But this Lois Lane is supposed to be richer, deeper, and more raw (watch the trailer below).

Producer Deborah Snyder (her husband, Zack Snyder, directed the film) has said of this new Lane:

I think that our Lois is a little feistier and stronger. I think both characters are more realistic to us, to society now. Clark to me was always too good to really relate to. He was a little too much this perfect boy scout, and although Lois was feisty and strong she was still always the one being rescued. Not to say that she doesn’t get rescued in our movie, but she rescues him right back, in so many other ways, emotionally. And in our film, in our last setpiece, she has a very strong position. There’s something that she needs to accomplish in this plan in order for it to work. I like seeing that she’s a really strong female character, and very proactive.

Adams said of Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s relationship, “I think he takes her by surprise, and I think it’s very interesting that it takes this person from another world to actually make her more human.”

Now, though Lane is a strong character, especially in this film, she is still not the hero and that is a problem we are seeing in cinema. There is a major lack of female super heroes and it is disappointing. For every Katniss, we have seven Captain Americas. Joss Whedon, director of the monumental blockbuster The Avengers, recently spoke out on this topic:

Toymakers will tell you they won’t sell enough, and movie people will point to the two terrible superheroine movies that were made and say, “You see? It can’t be done.” It’s stupid, and I’m hoping ‘The Hunger Games’ will lead to a paradigm shift. It’s frustrating to me that I don’t see anybody developing one of these movies. It actually pisses me off. My daughter watched ‘The Avengers’ and was like, “My favorite characters were the Black Widow and Maria Hill,” and I thought, Yeah, of course they were. I read a beautiful thing Junot Diaz wrote: “If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.

Maybe one day Lois Lane will rescue Superman.

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

Who doesn’t love the Olsen twins? You knew there was something special about these girls from the minute you saw those big blue eyes on Full House (or reruns of Full House for most of you). And unlike so many of their child star peers (hello Amanda Bynes) these women have actually made something of themselves. And by something, I mean a fashion empire and billions of dollars. Now they did get a head start considering they have been making deals since they were six months old, but as young adults they have proved they have the savvy and smarts to wear the title of moguls. Here are some lessons we can learn from the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in honor of their 27th birthday.

1) Don’t rely on your connections (or in their case, celebrity status)

Yes, a lot of celebrities try to be designers because they like fashion. But unlike them, Mary-Kate and Ashley have really stopped acting and are focusing mainly on their clothing line, The Row. And this isn’t them just slapping their names on a brand. “We didn’t want people to know that we were behind it,” Ashley told The Telegraph. They even considered hiring a front man. “We’d learned so much about building brands and talking to a specific customer. We did it with our faces at the beginning, and we knew we didn’t want to do that any more. It’s far more fun this way.”

2) Study and know your craft

Both women are involved in the art and manufacturing of design of their clothing line. Fashion experts believe the company has managed to succeed, despite the price (a Row jersey knit t-shirt has a retail price of $290) because the girls know their products very well, are aware of what their consumer group wants and have tried to not use or rely on their celebrity to promote it. They attribute their success to their devoted involvement in the entire garment process. “Running a fashion company, it’s just as important to understand numbers as it is to have a design point of view,” Mary-Kate told Newsweek back in April.

3) Be unique

When the Olsens were teenagers they dressed very cookie-cutter and often the same way. But now that they are older they have each embraced unique styles (they are truly the founders of Boho Chic and I personally attribute them for every photo of me ever taken wearing big sunglasses). As fashion designers they clearly show that they have an immense respect and adoration for fashion.

4) Do what you love

MK and Ashley could have made plenty of money and done very well as actors but they wanted to make this career change even though there were many naysayers at the beginning. A few CFDA awards later and these ladies are sitting quite pretty… in their giant coats, boots, and sunglasses.

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

Regina: Oh, my God! I love your skirt. Where did you get it?

Lea Edwards: It was my mom’s in the ’80s.

Regina: Vintage. So adorable.

Lea Edwards: Thanks.

Regina: [turns to Cady] That is the ugliest effing skirt I’ve ever seen.

The above line is from the classic and brilliant film Mean Girls. The fake compliment was given by Regina George. George is a queen bee at a high school. She rules the social scene because she is a brilliant war strategist. Seriously General Patton has nothing on this girl. Everything looks effortless but every move is actually calculated. And though I would like to say this type of foul play only exists in high school and (wildly entertaining) movies, that is absolutely not true.

Woman-on-woman harassment is on the rise. Thirty-five percent of Americans reported being bullied at work, according to a 2010 survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute. Female bullies more frequently engaged in under-the-radar behaviors such as sabotage (53.7 percent of female vs. 39.9 percent of male bullies) and abuse of authority (50.2 percent vs. 44.7 percent), as compared to the more observable form of verbal abuse engaged in by more male than female bullies, at 57.5 and 47.1 percents, respectively.

Why are we picking on our kind? Well in some ways, it is because we are own worst enemies. One reason women choose other women as targets “is probably some idea that they can find a less confrontational person or someone less likely to respond to aggression with aggression,” said Gary Namie, research director for the Workplace Bullying Institute.

Women are not raised to be confrontational. They are supposed to be the nurturing peacemakers. I am a classic example of this. If someone is literally arguing near me I remove myself from the room. When the barista screws up my drink and spells my name wrong I apologize for ordering an annoying drink (so anything that isn’t black coffee) and that my name isn’t Bob. I don’t confront people. I wait until I get home and then talk about the person behind their back to anyone that will listen. I was raised right.

But women are seriously trying to take other women down in some ways because they are threatened by them. Washington Post journalist Selena Rezvani wrote:

While workplace studies show women are routinely underestimated compared to men, we don’t give much credence to the fact that women hampering other women is also to blame…. Many of us have witnessed the man who comments on a woman’s hotness just as she leaves the room. But what about the woman who criticizes another’s appearance (Did you see what she was wearing in there?) or frowns on a woman’s unapologetic use of power (Just who does she think she is?)?

And in a way, I think the woman who waits for the other woman to leave the room or tries to sabotage her very quietly is even scarier than the loud-mouthed confrontational lady. Think how scary Miranda Priestly was in The Devil Wears Prada. Her voice level was barely above a whisper and she was absolutely terrifying. Women can be so sneaky. On an episode of the brilliant but short-lived series Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23 the naive June thought the only other girl on investment bank team was trying to befriend her, but she was only finding out information about her to take her down later. It made for a hilarious episode, but in real life, that would not be so fun.

Now, this behavior is partly because it took women such a long time to make progress in the workplace and we don’t want to go backwards, but this is really hurting us. According to Catalyst, women make up more than 50 percent of management, professional, and related occupations but only 15.7 percent of Fortune 500 officers and 15.2 percent of directors were women. This lack of support is part of the problem.

According to new research, one of the major reasons we don’t see women being promoted is because women at higher levels do not help other women get ahead. Women at the top experience something called “value threat” which causes them to not want to help other women.

Michelle Duguid, PhD, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Olin Business School and author of Female Tokens in High-prestige Work Groups: Catalysts or Inhibitors of Group Diversification? identifies two forms of value threat she thinks affect the behavior of female tokens in high-status work groups in the context of promotion and selection — competitive threat and collective threat.

“Competitive threat is the fear that a highly qualified female candidate might be more qualified, competent or accepted than you are,” Duguid writes. “Women also might be concerned about bringing in another woman with lower qualifications, who could reinforce negative stereotypes about women and impact others’ impressions of them. This is collective threat.”

Basically, we are still all in high school.

The woman bullying program is really due to the environment. A study from the Netherlands found that if a woman was in a sexist environment she was far more likely to behave like an alpha female or Queen Bee. The woman would actually become more sexist than her male counterparts as a result. “These women are concerned that if they are seen to be helping other women rise to the top or supporting other women in the workplace, they will be derided by the men at work, and will be seen as operating counter to the culture rather than acting like one of the boys,” according to  research.

Rezvani said women, especially those at the top levels in their careers, may be experiencing some sort of “sexism amnesia.” She wrote, ” They may forget what it’s like to be junior, to have little sway, and to be underestimated as a young woman. When they finally do get to the top, they adopt the mindset of those around them and gloss over their past struggles. Even harsher is the sink-or-swim school of thought whose club motto is, ‘I was treated like dirt on my way up, so you should be too.’”

These women make Regina George sound like a day at the beach.

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.

It has been a tough spring for Lululemon CEO, Christine Day. After what seemed like years of nirvana perfection, Lululemon hit a bit of a downward dog this year.

Day, who has been CEO since 2008 (the company launched in 1998 and went public in 2007), announced she would be stepping down as CEO and from Lulu’s board.  Day said her leaving was a “personal decision” without elaborating and that she notified the board last Friday. The company said Day would remain CEO until a successor is named.

Day helped the company achieve monumental growth and helped to establish the brand’s cult-like popularity (of which I may or may not be a member. You can never have enough cute clothes for yoga). The brand has inspired blogs such as “Lululemon Addict” and hundreds of Facebook groups devoted to celebrating the company. It also encourages its customers to embody the Lululemon lifestyle and identifies “ambassadors” in the community who can show them this better way of life. There are also Lululemon sponsored exercise classes and running groups.

But 2013 has not been a great year for the company so far. In March the company had to recall 17 percent of its inventory due to fabric that made their famous yoga pants too sheer. People like to be comfortable at yoga but this went a bit too far. Plus, the recall cost $60 million.

This debacle was followed by a lawsuit filed by a retirement fund for police and firefighters in Florida. They took issue with a decision by Lululemon’s compensation committee to boost the maximum payout of the executive bonus plan just before that giant recall was made. Both the recall and the suit got a ton of media attention and it looked as if the company was not achieving perfect balance. It was a major image hit and a financial one, according to USA Today.

In a statement released today, Day said “it is the right time” for the change at the top:

Plans have been laid for the next five years and a vision set for the next ten. Now is the right time to bring in a CEO who will drive the next phase of Lululemon’s development and growth. I will continue to actively lead the organization while the Board searches for a new CEO, and will work to ensure a smooth transition.

I have been a long time admirer of Day. Prior to Lululemon, she had been an executive at Starbucks for 20 years. I think she was really smart to capitalize on the major uptick in women’s sports and therefore women’s sports apparel. She also targeted a recession-proof customer base with Lululemon’s main customers typically being high-income women who are insulated to prices and downturns in the economy. During the 2008 recession sales continued to grow with net revenue reaching $353.5 million up from $269.9 million.

I also admired how honest she was in this interview with Fortune last year in which she admitted she had to work on not being a micromanager. She had to learn how to give her employees more room to thrive.

Something tells me this woman will land on her feet.

What do you think of Day’s departure? 

Join The Levo League to connect with smart women like you, mentors, sponsors and role models.