International Women’s Day usually feels like a performative filler episode of Succession: a high-gloss production of “empowerment” buzzwords and floral graphics masking the same exhausted power structures running the show behind the scenes. As the world trades in hollow ‘Girl Boss’ platitudes, all feminine-identifying beings are quietly footing the Operational Tax for a system that would collapse without their invisible labor.
Cognitive Load and the “Internalized CEO”
This isn’t just about “stress,” it’s about how the system “codes” the psyche. This is Cognitive Load. It’s the invisible, 24/7 labor of anticipating, softening, and maintaining the emotional homeostasis of everyone around you.
Most women have become the default COO of everyone else’s feelings. If a room is tense, you feel it in your nervous system first. If a friend is slighted, you’re already drafting the repair in your head. This isn’t just “kindness”; it’s a State of Hypervigilance. It’s an adaptive survival strategy born from a system that rewards women for being hyper-aware of others while punishing them for honoring their own gut.
De-Centering the Monolith: Intersectionality is the Work
“Woman” is a spectrum, not a monolith, and the labor is never distributed equally.
- For trans women, it includes the “Safety Tax”—the constant performance of gender required to navigate a world that weaponizes their existence.
- For those navigating migration or forced separation, it’s the exhausting task of translating an identity across borders while the system demands assimilation at the cost of the soul.
- For survivors of domestic or state-sanctioned violence (from abusive homes to regimes like the Taliban), “emotional labor” is literal resistance. It is the high-stakes chess game of survival where maintaining your internal identity is a revolutionary act.
If feminism isn’t anti-oppressive and decolonizing, it’s just a board meeting for a select few. Systemic forces like racism, ableism, and corruption aren’t just “outside issues,” they permeate collective welfare and live inside the body.
The “Succession” Paradox: Survival vs. Self
Just like the Roy siblings, who perform specific archetypes to survive the patriarch’s gaze, many of us have spent decades trapped in roles: The Good Daughter, The Fixer, The Resilient Survivor.
From a Trauma-Informed lens, these aren’t just personality traits; they are Attachment Strategies. When the system dictates that value is tied to utility, the “True Self” stays locked in the basement while the “Functional Mask” goes to work. It’s easy to become so good at the role that the person underneath starts to feel like a stranger.
Breaking the Systemic Contract
Thriving isn’t about “learning to cope” with exploitation; it’s about reclaiming the narrative. This is the work of Differentiation of Self.
- Audit “Invisible Loyalties”: Whose discomfort is being managed at the expense of your own peace?
- Reject “Mandatory Resilience”: There is a right to collapse. Resilience is often a tool that systems use to keep people productive while they are hurting.
- Somatic Reclamation: Moving out of the “planning brain” and back into the body. What does it feel like to exist when you aren’t being “useful” to someone else?
The Bottom Line
The system wants women exhausted because a tired woman is easier to manage. But value isn’t a measurement of productivity or empathy for others. No one needs to be “needed” to be worthy.
Women’s Day might be over, but the rebellion isn’t. Existing for yourself is enough. Logan Roy might not approve—but your nervous system will.
Written by: Sara Guerrero
