She Was Always in the Arena

Key points:

• • Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” reflects the reality of leadership, one that women have long embodied without recognition.
• • Data shows women remain underrepresented in leadership despite active contributions across industries.
• • Organizations are challenged to better recognize and elevate women already driving impact within their teams.

March 2026 — I have a confession: Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite president. I love his brashness, his relentless curiosity, his obsession with the natural world, and his absolute refusal to be anything other than himself. He was a sickly child who became a cowboy, a war hero, a conservationist, and a president — all because he decided, early on, that the only place worth being was in the fight. Historians have even called him the great male feminist of his era. As a Harvard senior, he wrote his thesis advocating for marriage equality and urged women not to change their names upon marriage. As a New York assemblyman, he introduced legislation to punish men who abused their wives. And in 1912, he became the first presidential candidate in American history to formally endorse women’s suffrage. So when I tell you one of his quotes has been living rent-free in my head this month, it should surprise no one.

In 1910, Roosevelt stood before a crowd in Paris and delivered what would become one of the most quoted speeches in history, “Citizenship in a Republic.” You’ve likely heard the centerpiece, often cited as the “The Man in the Arena” passage: 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles … The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again … but who does actually strive to do the deeds.”

He wrote “The Man in the Arena” a full decade before American women could even vote. But here’s the irony: the man who wrote those words was actively working to change the world that made them true. In 2026, every single word of this quote describes something women have been doing throughout all of history, while rarely being handed the credit for it.

Women were always in the arena. They just weren’t “supposed” to be.

The numbers don’t lie

At caa, we’ve spent 10 years conducting business reviews across 18 U.S. markets. We interview hundreds of CEOs annually — not just Fortune 500 leaders, but the full spectrum of American business: small companies, midmarket firms, family businesses, startups. The leaders who are actually running the economy.

Only 18.43% of our interviewees are women. And it’s not just our data that show this disparity. A Grant Thornton report illustrates a recent trend: the number of women in senior leadership roles is, in fact, declining. In 2026, only 31% senior leadership roles are held by women, down from 34% in 2025, and 35% in 2024.

Those numbers bother me deeply. Not because the women aren’t there — they are. They’re leading, building, striving, failing, and showing back up every single day. They are absolutely in the arena. But something continues to keep them from the seat at the table where they’d be seen, heard, and counted.

What Roosevelt was really describing

What made that 1910 speech so enduring wasn’t its bravado. It was its honesty about what leadership actually looks like. Not the clean version. Not the highlight reel. The unglamorous grind of someone who commits so fully to a worthy cause that they’re willing to be wrong, fall short, and be visibly marked by the effort.

“Face marred by dust and sweat and blood” is not a description of men. It is a description of every leader who has ever truly led.

I see it constantly in my own organization — in the women on my team who push through challenges that would make many fold, who mentor and hold people accountable without drama, who get out of their comfort zones again and again and never once ask for a standing ovation. They are in the arena. They have always been in the arena.

What this means for you

As CEOs, Women’s History Month can feel like a moment for reflection that doesn’t quite connect to the Monday morning decisions on your desk. I want to change that.

This is not about a diversity checkbox. It’s about something far more practical: Are you actually seeing the people in your organization who are doing the hardest work? Because if the data is any guide, a meaningful number of them are women, and they are performing without the title, the compensation, or the visibility that their output has earned.

Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” passage  ends with the idea that the person in the arena, even if they fail, “at least fails while daring greatly,” and that their place will “never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” That’s the standard real leaders hold themselves to. And it’s the standard we owe to the people on our teams who are already living it.

This Women’s History Month, I don’t want to just celebrate the names in the history books. I want to honor the women who are in the arena right now — in your company, on your team, perhaps sitting two desks away — daring greatly, every single day.

The question is whether you’re paying attention.

Ask yourself this: Who on your team is quietly in the arena — striving, falling short, coming back, doing the work — and what would change in your organization if you truly saw them, elevated them, and gave them the platform their effort has already earned?

Have something to say? You can become a contributor by reaching out to caa today!