Recognition has become cheap. A ranking can be bought, a badge traded for a follow. The WorkingMama Power List 2026 was built to be the opposite: a curated record of the South African women whose work holds up to scrutiny. We explain who qualifies across leaders, founders, and community builders, how the 21 finalists are chosen, and what a place on the list really signals. Nominations are open now, with the Winner revealed in our Q4 issue and a R10 000 prize at the Pink Carpe

By Elize Fisher · August 2026 · WorkingMama® Magazine Leadership, and everything it quietly asks in return. Women in Leadership We are very good at celebrating the arrival. The appointment. The title. The founder feature and the photograph of a woman finally standing in a room she was once told she did not belong in. What we rarely count is what it took to get there. And what it keeps taking to stay. That question sits at the centre of our Q3 issue. Not what leadership looks

Some losses happen so quietly that we only recognise them later. We give away our voice in small compromises, silences and surrenders until one day we realise how far we have drifted from ourselves. *Reclaiming Yourself After Small Surrenders* is a deeply personal reflection on finding your voice again, facing what you have been afraid to face, and learning that building a meaningful life should never require you to disappear.