Wola Joseph-Condotti 
I have often been asked: Why don’t women support other women more often? The question carries both pain and curiosity, and I feel both, deeply. As someone who has risen through the ranks in a largely male-dominated energy sector, mentored women across industries, and faced both grace and grit from my female peers, I have seen the many faces of this dilemma.
Let me begin by saying this: the issue is not rooted in pettiness or envy, as many assume. It is far more layered.
Many women operate in professional spaces that were never designed for us. The unspoken message has long been: There is room for only one of you at the top. That kind of scarcity breeds competition, not collaboration. And when you have had to claw your way through glass ceilings, political landmines, and shifting perceptions, your instinct might be to guard that space rather than share it.
Then there is the matter of internalised bias. Biases formed from the very systems we seek to escape. Sometimes, the hardest critics of women are other women who have been taught, explicitly or not, to distrust female leadership. I have seen women judged more harshly for the same decisions their male counterparts are praised for. I have lived it.
But let me be honest: I have also disappointed myself.
There were times I should have spoken up and did not. Times I let my silence signal complicity. Times I failed to check my own unconscious bias because I expected more from “her” simply because she was a woman. I expected empathy without earning it, loyalty without investing in it, excellence without nurturing it. And when I did not receive it, I pulled away.
And yet, there is hope.
I have been mentored by women who saw my light before I could name it. I have been carried by women who refused to be threatened by my growth. I have been sharpened by women who corrected me in love and celebrated me in faith. They taught me that real support is not always loud, but it is consistent. That real sisterhood requires both accountability and tenderness.
So, what can we do?
We must first drop the illusion of perfection. Not every woman will get it right, and not every female boss will be nurturing. But if we keep expecting flawlessness from each other while making room for the rough edges of men, we create a dangerous double standard.
We must mentor beyond our likeness. It is easy to support someone who reminds you of your younger self. It is harder, but more powerful, to lift someone whose story challenges yours, whose style differs from yours, whose path was not paved like yours.
And we must tell the truth, like I am doing now.
The truth is that this healing begins with each of us. Whether you are a CEO, a manager, a fresh graduate, or somewhere in-between, you have power. Use it to build bridges, not walls.
There is a Scripture I return to often: “Two are better than one… if either of them falls, one can help the other up.”(Ecclesiastes 4:9–10). That verse does not qualify the gender. It simply speaks to the power of togetherness.
Imagine a world where women stop trying to prove they deserve to be in the room, and start building rooms for others. Imagine a workplace where brilliance is multiplied through support, not stifled by suspicion. Imagine a future where your win is not my loss, but the confirmation that it is possible.
That is the sisterhood I choose. One woman at a time.
Wola Joseph-Condotti is the Group Managing Director/CEO of West Power & Gas Limited. A Harvard-trained lawyer and passionate advocate for faith-driven leadership, gender equity, and energy transition in Africa, she writes from the intersection of power, purpose, and personal growth.