I thought I wanted to write an article about unfairness and unequal treatment of female and male leaders. Then I thought again.

Steph Korey, the CEO and Co-founder of Away luggages, a hip direct-to-consumer millennial brand, was forced to step down a week after harsh criticism for her management style and her “toxic” work culture appeared in the news.

Unsurprising, it does remind us of other crazy-10x-growth-unicorns leaders that had to grow at all costs, even if it meant sacrificing people and creating a culture of pressure. Jeff Bezos at Amazon or Travis Kalanick at Uber have all come under fire for their harsh and ruthless leadership style - none had to leave after a week though.

What surprises me is that Steph not only had to step down only a week after criticism had appeared, but also that she did publish an apology on Twitter, talking about how she did things that weren’t right and how she needed to improve as a leader.

While I get it that the public right now is sensitive towards what crazy, idolized leaders do (like Adam Neumann from WeWork) and that investors try to protect their investments by quickly firing leaders that stir negative publicity, it is this apology that makes me feel ambigious.

First, it does make it appear that how Jeff, Adam and Travis lead is okay, and that how Steph did is not okay. Women apologize and men don’t, which I am sure is counterproductive to any emancipation discussion.

Second, the public apology lends itself as a platform for even more criticisim, fueling the fire that is already burning (just look at the comments). It reminds me of a digital version of a medieval market trial where the convicted apologizes and in return receives even more egg throwing and public shaming. Imagine the Walk of Shame of Adam Neumann if he had tried something similar…

I think what this article is really about is not a discussion of women’s equality, but a reminder of the group-think tendency of human kind and given such ingrained nature how leaders need to decide well which battles to pick and when to stay low key.