Why Millennial Women Are 'Leaning Out' of the Corporate World - Business Insider
Business Insider
Subscribe
Account icons
- Search
- Business
- Strategy
- Economy
- Finance
- Retail
- Advertising
- Careers
- Law
- Media
- Real Estate
- Small Business
- The Better Work Project
- Personal Finance
- Tech
- Science
- AI
- Enterprise
- Transportation
- Startups
- Innovation
- Markets
- News
- Stocks
- Indices
- Commodities
- Crypto
- Currencies
- ETFs
- Lifestyle
- Entertainment
- Culture
- Travel
- Food
- Health
- Education
- Parenting
- Military & Defense
- Politics
- Reviews
Home
- Kitchen
- Style
- Streaming
- Pets
- Tech
- Deals
- Gifts
- Tickets
- Video
Big Business
- So Expensive
- View From Above
Small Business
- Authorized Account
- Risky Business
- Boot Camp
- Still Standing
- How Crime Works
- Life Lessons
- Games
- Boxed
- Pipeline
- Knighthop
- Tally
Live Events
- Tech Insider: Growth Mode
- The Long Play
- Stream Business Insider
- Level Up
Community
- Job Scout
Subscribe
My account
- Log in
Newsletters
- Saved Articles
US edition
- Deutschland & Österreich
- España
- Japan
- Polska
- TW 全球中文版
Get the app Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
The Lean Out
Millennial career women are increasingly leaving the corporate world. Some don't see it as a bad thing.
Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
By Julia Pugachevsky
You're currently following this author!
Click to unsubscribe from email alerts.
Follow
Oct 17, 2026, 11:04 AM GMT+2
Read in app
Copy link
X
After 20 years of balancing her corporate leadership roles with motherhood, Trisha Daab was ready for a break.
"Life had felt like sprinting a marathon for as long as I could remember," Daab, 47, told Business Insider. "I had no idea how tired I was until I stopped working."
In her year off, she tap danced, volunteered at a food bank, traveled to Disneyland and Alaska, and spent more time with her kids. By the end, she had decided she couldn't go back to her old life.
"My job often demanded that it came first — never-ending to-do lists, urgent emails, travel, and always chasing the next promotion," Daab, who's now a travel writer and substitute teacher, said. "Stepping away helped me realize my priorities had shifted."
Now in their 30s and 40s, many millennial women are skeptical of corporate and instead becoming business owners, content creators, and mothers, prioritizing more flexible work schedules. Instead of striving to get to the top, they're inverting Sheryl Sandberg's mantra from the 2010s — and leaning out.
Sandberg, Meta's former COO, told Business Insider that the corporate exodus is due to women feeling undervalued at work.
"This is not the women who are saying, 'I don't want to do it,'" Sandberg, 57, said. "It's the women saying, 'I don't want to do it because I'm not wanted, I'm not getting the same opportunities and the same support, and I face an unfair burden at home.'"
Even Lean In, the organization founded by Sandberg and named after her 2013 bestselling book, is noticing a recent shift in women's ambitions in the workforce.