2026 Agenda

2026 is the year to redesign work for the realities of modern life.

This year's Summit treats women not as a category to be supported, but as the workforce signal that reveals where modern organizations are quietly breaking. The arc of the day is built around a single premise: most organizations are misreading the signals they are already seeing. The retention problem isn't a retention problem. The pipeline isn't a pipeline problem. The benefits gap isn't a benefits gap. Diagnose correctly, and the levers for change become operational and immediate.

In a climate of policy pullbacks, DEI rollback and economic pressure, the cost of misdiagnosis is no longer abstract. It shows up on the balance sheet in attrition, in productivity, and in the leadership pipeline that never quite arrives.

This year’s agenda reflects that evolution.

REGISTER FOR YOUR DIGITAL PASS

8:30 - 9:00: Registration and morning refreshments

9.15 - 10.00: Misdiagnosis: Why Your Retention Strategy Isn’t Working

  • Organizations have invested heavily in flexibility, mentorship, leadership development, and workplace culture. Yet women continue to leave — early in their careers, at mid-level, and just as they reach senior leadership. Different reasons are cited. The pattern remains the same.

    What if the problem isn't your retention strategy, but your diagnosis?

    Drawing on Mount Sinai Health System's clinical expertise and new workplace research from RMHCompass spanning more than 150 organizations, this session will examine how many companies are misinterpreting the warning signs of disengagement, underperformance, and attrition while overlooking one of the most significant drivers of women's workforce experience: health.

    From menstruation and fertility through pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause, and beyond, biological transitions shape careers in ways most workplace systems fail to recognize or measure. The result is missed opportunities, preventable talent loss, and unnecessary business costs.

    This session will challenge leaders to rethink the root causes behind their workforce data and explore what becomes possible when organizations address the underlying issue rather than the symptoms.

10:00 - 10:30: The Hidden Workload: Why Mental Load Matters at Work

  • Organizations have made meaningful progress in addressing visible workplace barriers. Yet one of the most significant influences on women's careers often goes unseen: mental load - the constant cognitive work of planning, anticipating, coordinating, and managing responsibilities both at work and at home.

    In this session, sociologists Dr. Leah Ruppaner and Dr. Allison Daminger, whose research has helped shape today's understanding of mental load, explore how this invisible labor affects productivity, career progression, burnout, leadership readiness, and long-term retention.

    Drawing on research and real-world implications, they will examine why mental load continues to fall disproportionately on women, how it impacts organizational performance, and what employers can do to better recognize and address this often-overlooked dimension of work. As organizations compete for talent across a multigenerational workforce, understanding mental load is becoming a strategic leadership imperative.

  • Following on the heels of the previous discussion which explores the invisible cognitive labor that disproportionately falls on women and quietly shapes productivity, burnout, and career progression. This conversation picks up where that discussion leaves off by examining what mental load looks like in practice inside today’s workforce and what employers can actually do about it.

    In this session, Emily Klingbeil, Founder & CEO of HiPhoebe, will speak with Lindsay Jurist-Rosner, CEO of Wellthy, and one of Wellthy’s enterprise clients about how caregiving responsibilities, including parenting, eldercare, chronic illness, and family care coordination, are impacting workforce participation, retention, and employee capacity in real time.

    Together, they’ll explore practical examples of how organizations are beginning to rethink support for working caregivers, where traditional benefits models fall short, and what strategies are proving most effective in helping employees better navigate the growing demands they carry outside of work.

    This discussion moves beyond theory to provide actionable insight into how organizations can reduce hidden workforce strain while improving retention, continuity, and overall workforce sustainability.

10:30 - 11:00: Workforce Strategy: Supporting the Employee Behind the Employee 

11:00 - 11:30: Refreshment & Networking Break

11.30 - 12:15: Designing Work for a 60-Year Career

  • People are living longer, working longer, and navigating careers that span five or six decades rather than three or four. Yet most workplace systems, from hiring and promotion to benefits, leadership development, and retirement planning, remain built for a very different era.

    The result is a growing disconnect between how careers actually unfold and how organizations continue to manage talent. Midlife attrition, leadership shortages, burnout, and the loss of experienced employees are increasingly symptoms of workforce models that have failed to evolve.

    This session will explore how forward-thinking organizations are redesigning work for longer, less linear careers by reimagining career pathways, investing in continuous development, supporting health and wellbeing across every life stage, and creating leadership pipelines that reflect the realities of today's workforce.

    Viewed through the lens of women's careers, where longevity, caregiving, and midlife health transitions often intersect most visibly, this conversation will examine what it takes to build organizations that can attract, develop, and retain talent over the course of a 60-year career.

  • AI is reshaping jobs, decision-making, and productivity. But its impact on the workforce extends far beyond efficiency. As AI becomes embedded in hiring, performance evaluation, communication, and everyday work, it is beginning to redefine how employees gain visibility, build trust, demonstrate value, and advance within organizations.

    Leaders are now facing a new set of questions. How will AI influence who gets seen, trusted, and promoted? What happens to work built on coordination, communication, relationship management, and institutional knowledge? How do organizations preserve human judgment while embracing automation? And what new skills, leadership capabilities, and governance models will be required to thrive?

    This session brings together leaders at the forefront of AI and the future of work to examine how these technologies are reshaping workforce dynamics in real time. Through research, practical examples, and organizational experience, the discussion will explore how companies can harness AI to improve performance and innovation while ensuring it expands opportunity, strengthens leadership pipelines, and builds a more resilient workforce.

    Viewed through the lens of women's advancement, this conversation will also examine how AI may reshape career pathways in roles where influence, collaboration, and organizational knowledge have traditionally been essential to success—and what leaders can do today to ensure the future of work is both more productive and more equitable.

12:15 - 12:45: AI & the New Visibility Gap: Who Gets Seen, Trusted, and Promoted?

12:45: Lunch

1:15 -2:00: Lunch Panel - The Reinvention Economy: Why Midlife Women Are Just Getting Started

  • For generations, midlife was portrayed as a period of slowing down. Today, a growing number of women are proving the opposite. They are launching businesses, changing careers, pursuing long-held ambitions, embracing new identities, and redefining success on their own terms.

    Sponsored by Menopause Mandate, this candid luncheon conversation brings together an inspiring group of women to explore the realities of reinvention during midlife. From career pivots and personal transformation to changing relationships, evolving priorities, and renewed purpose, the discussion will examine why this stage of life is becoming one of the most dynamic periods of growth.   …and what it means for the future of work.

  • Women's careers are often viewed through the lens of skills, performance, and opportunity. Yet across a lifetime, three critical health inflection points can profoundly influence career progression, productivity, leadership, and long-term workforce participation.

    In this session, clinical experts from Mount Sinai Health System will explore the health transitions that shape women's working lives, from reproductive health in the early career years, to cardiovascular health in midlife, to menopause and healthy aging later in life. While these issues are often treated separately, together they tell a much larger story about workforce performance and the evolving needs of today's employees.

    By better understanding how health influences women's careers over time, leaders will gain a new lens for interpreting workforce behaviors and a deeper appreciation for why women's health has become an essential component of talent strategy, leadership development, and long-term business performance.

2:00 - 2:30 : Three Health Inflection Points That Shape Women's Careers

2:30 - 3:00: The Male Ally in Practice

  • Supporting women at work isn't solely a women's issue.  It requires leaders who are willing to challenge long-held assumptions about careers, caregiving, flexibility, and success.

    This candid conversation brings together male leaders who have redefined what leadership looks like through both personal choices and professional action. Whether advocating for women's rights, supporting caregivers, reshaping workplace culture, or leading with greater empathy and flexibility, they will share the experiences that changed their own perspectives; and the impact those changes have had on the people and organizations they lead.

    Moving beyond theory, this session will explore what allyship looks like in practice, why it matters to business performance, and how men can play an active role in building workplaces where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

4:15 - 4:30: The Multiplier Effect:  Small Changes that Scale

  • The day concludes by bringing together the Summit's key themes and insights, highlighting how meaningful progress is often driven not by sweeping transformation, but by intentional changes that are amplified across teams, policies, and organizations. This closing reflection will challenge leaders to identify the actions that can create lasting impact and demonstrate how small shifts, when multiplied across systems, have the power to reshape the future of work.

3:00 - 3:45: The Last Mile: Why Leadership Pipelines Still Break at the Top

  • Organizations have spent decades investing in leadership development, succession planning, mentorship, and sponsorship to advance more women into senior leadership. While these efforts have expanded the pipeline, the final step remains the most elusive. The closer women get to the top, the fewer make it through.

    Why?

    In this candid conversation, accomplished executives will examine why leadership pipelines continue to narrow at the highest levels despite years of investment and good intentions. Drawing on their own experiences leading large, complex organizations, they will explore how leadership potential is evaluated, how visibility and sponsorship influence executive advancement, and where structural and cultural barriers continue to shape who reaches the CEO role.

    This discussion will move beyond the familiar conversation about pipelines to focus on what organizations must do differently to identify, develop, and advance the next generation of women leaders.

9:00 - 9:15: The State of Women at Work:  Getting the Diagnosis Right

  • The conversation around women at work has entered a new phase. In this opening keynote, Make Work Fair co-author Siri Chilazi will cut through the headlines with the latest research on where organizations are making measurable progress, where momentum is stalling, and what businesses stand to lose by standing still. Combining evidence, practical insight, and compelling data, this keynote will establish the strategic context for the day ahead and challenge leaders to rethink what it takes to build high-performing, equitable workplaces.

3:45 - 4:15: From Insight to Implementation Plan:  The 12 Month Action Plan

  • What does it actually take to move from recognizing a workforce need to implementing meaningful, enterprise-wide change?

    In this session, Dr. Joanne Armstrong, Chief Medical Officer of Women’s Health & Genomics at CVS Health, will share how CVS identified gaps in support for its female employee population and translated that insight into a comprehensive, scalable strategy. From the initial business case and internal alignment to program design, rollout, and measurement, this is a practical look at what it takes to operationalize change inside a complex organization.

    Designed as an instructional session, the discussion will unpack key decisions, trade-offs, and lessons learned, giving leaders a clear framework for how to move from idea to implementation within their own organizations.