An article by Blanca Folguera, Chief People Officer at SAMY
Unmasking the ‘invisible rules’
Through a real story:
A few days ago, something happened in a hiring process at SAMY that I can’t stop thinking about. A candidate we were interviewing didn’t mention she was pregnant during the process. Not because she wanted to hide it. But because she didn’t feel she could share it. And honestly, I understood. Because for decades, women have been silently taught the same rule: Timing matters.
Don’t say it too early. Don’t risk the offer. Don’t complicate things. So women calculate. They calculate when to say it. They calculate how it will be perceived. They calculate the potential cost. And that calculation is exhausting.
This is why conversations around equality at work still matter. Progress is real, but contradictions remain. In industries like marketing, tech, and social media, women represent a large part of the workforce. At SAMY, 70% of our global team are women.
But representation alone does not change these invisible rules. The real question is: Can women grow here without editing parts of their lives?
Mentoring and safety
At SAMY, we are determined to challenge that. We work to make progression clearer through transparent & objective performance criteria, leadership visibility, and sponsorship. We invest in initiatives like Mirror Club, our internal mentoring program for women, which has already connected more than 26 mentors and mentees across the company. Because culture is not built through statements. It shows up in everyday decisions.
For example, SAMY hired me while I was on my second maternity leave. At a moment when many companies might have simply waited. That decision told me something powerful about the culture we want to build. Because when women feel they need to hide a pregnancy during a hiring process, the problem is not the woman.
It’s the system she has learned to navigate. So the real challenge for companies today is simple: Are we building environments where women feel safe enough to tell the whole truth about their lives?
Because if we want innovation, creativity and leadership, we cannot ask people to show up only partially. And we definitely cannot ask women to choose between ambition and motherhood. We absolutely believe the strongest cultures are built when people can show up fully.
Find me on LinkedIn if you want to continue this conversation!
