2025 was…well, a lot. Especially for women. The manosphere grew. Bodies shrank. Beauty standards became even more exclusive. Speaking of exclusive: DEI programs were rolled back. Women left the traditional work force in droves, the wage gap widened, and discourse about the “ambition gap” just completely missed the mark.

And in light of all that, I’m going to say it: This is not the year we need to be putting unnecessary pressure on ourselves via New Year’s resolutions.

Now, if you love a resolution? You do you. If you want to vow to, say, write in your gratitude journal every morning, be kinder to yourself, spend more time with friends, or adopt another habit that would truly make you feel better, that’s great!

But so often, New Year’s resolutions are about self-improvement, not life-improvement. We vow to lose ten pounds, or get promoted, or find a new job. But right now, it’s pretty clear: The odds are stacked against women. There are messages everywhere that are designed to make us feel like we’re failing, when in reality, we are being failed by systems and standards that don’t match up with reality. 

We work to put more inclusive beauty standards into place, only for that progress to be largely undone by Skinnytok and the Ozempic boom. We work to be taken seriously by the medical community, only to be routinely gaslit and dismissed. We work hard to achieve professional success — not just to gain financial independence, but also to promote the causes we believe in. But we’re doing it all with the weight of caregiving in a system that doesn’t view care work as work on our backs, so we fall flat on our faces, time and time again. But instead of understanding our reality, we’re told women are “ruining the workforce” or that we are just “not ambitious”.

I’m not suggesting we take this as a sign to stop trying. But I am saying that maybe this year, we take a moment to think about all the ways we’ve been convinced that we need fixing, when the truth is, we are navigating our world that doesn’t want us to ever feel good enough.

There is too much money to be made off of women’s insecurities. There is too much scapegoating to be done around our vulnerabilities. So why should we buy into the pressure of self-improvement? Right now feels like the perfect time to lean into something else. 

In short? To quote Amy Poehler: "I think women should stop improving themselves. I think we did it"