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American women are being Obstructed in the workplaceAccording to a new annual report, due to “a reduction in sponsorship and managerial promotion”.
2025 Women in the workplace reportpublished by the advocacy group lean forward and management consulting group McKinsey & Company detailed the situation at some companies “De-prioritizing” women’s careers. Some of these companies have even scaled back their workplace programs good for womenThat includes remote working and targeted career development, the report said.
The report also found that “for the first time, a significant aspiration gap has emerged: women are less interested in promotions than men.”
Jennifer McCollum, president and CEO of Catalyst, a nonprofit that advocates for women’s advancement and workplace equity, said in a statement that the report should be a “wake-up call” for leaders.
“Lean In’s new report on women in the workplace should be a wake-up call for every business leader: Women’s progress is fragile,” McCollum said. independent. “This report highlights common pressure points for women at work that Catalyst has been highlighting for decades: limited flexibility, uneven sponsorship and unequal opportunities.”
Here’s what this year’s report reveals about women in the workplace and how companies can ensure women have equal access to career opportunities:
“Ambition Gap”
The report found an “ambition gap” exists between men and women in the workplace. The report found that about 80% of women want to be promoted, compared with 86% of men. The gap is also largest between the junior and senior levels.
“Career support is strongly related to promotion aspirations,” the report reads. “When women and men have sponsors and receive equal levels of support from managers and more senior colleagues, they are equally enthusiastic about advancing to the next level. The promotion aspirations gap disappears.”
Rachel Thomas, CEO of Lean In said independent Women “feel fewer commitments highlighted in the report, and they feel there are fewer programs that specifically benefit women.”
“Understandably, it makes them feel more neglected and less optimistic,” Thomas said.
Women are less likely to be promoted than men
The report found that women remain underrepresented at all levels of the workplace. “For every 100 men, only 93 women are promoted to manager, and even fewer women of color are promoted,” the report reads.
This trend especially hurts young women early in their careers.
Thomas said: “We know that junior women in particular face many difficulties early in their careers, as evidenced by the problem of ladder cuts in year 11, where they are less likely to progress to managers, which leaves fewer women promoted to senior managers, directors and so on.”
The report found that even when women achieve top positions in the workplace, they still face barriers to advancement and health.
“Senior women who are reluctant to advance are more likely to believe that top jobs are out of reach and that employees in senior roles are burned out and unhappy. Senior women also stand out for high levels of burnout compared to other employees and worry that their gender will hinder their advancement,” the report said.
Workplaces can work to improve outcomes for women
This year’s report highlights the practical steps workplace leaders can take over the next year to improve outcomes for women.
“When employees believe their workplace is fair and inclusive, they are at least twice as likely to be motivated to do their best work, willing to take risks, and able to express dissent,” the report said.
McCollum says sponsorship is one of the key ways workplaces can support women who want to advance their careers.
“This network of senior leaders who use their influence and status to advance women and help them secure high-profile projects or roles is key to opening boardroom doors and strengthening pathways to senior leadership and the C-suite,” she said.
Thomas encourages workplaces to “track outcomes” for employees so they can better understand what resources they need.
Thomas believes workplace leaders should ask: “Who gets sponsorship, and does that lead to promotions? Who gets leadership training, and does that lead to stretch assignments or other opportunities for advancement? Who is encouraged to use AI and trained to use it?”
Thomas added: “This year we’re seeing junior women not getting the same level of encouragement from their managers and obviously that can have a huge impact in the coming years and beyond.”
She also encourages women early in their careers to seek peer mentoring opportunities.
“It’s hard for me to think back to the early days of my career, but I remember not thinking that I could be that helpful to other women — being so early in my career myself, how could I help? In fact, I don’t think anything could be further from the truth,” Thomas said.
“There’s a lot of research on the power of peer mentoring, giving advice to peers, sharing ideas with peers, empathy with peers and the validation that comes with that.”