Uncovering the Truth about Women's Progress in the Workplace

On the Horizon

Listeners, welcome! We're celebrating the 60th birthday of our flagship publication, the McKinsey Quarterly. It's live and available for free at McKinsey.com. This edition focuses on the wild ride of technology and its impact on society, business, and leadership. Just 60 years ago, touch-tone telephones were a novelty, and now we wear computers on our wrists. In 60 years, the banking industry might look very different with the advent of generative AI. Our Global Banking Annual Review is now live on our website.

Now, let's hear about the recently published Women in the Workplace report with senior partners Alexis Krivkovich and Lareina Yee.

Battling Change Fatigue

My origin story is very personal. After becoming an elected partner at McKinsey, I attended my first global partner meeting and was shocked to see the low representation of women. I had two young daughters and was about to have a third, and I didn't want them to face the same situation in 25 years. Lareina's story was similar. She noticed the imbalance when walking into client meetings and decided to use McKinsey analytics to solve the lack of women at the top. This year, McKinsey interviewed 15,000 employees, and one Black woman manager shared her perspective. She said the biggest barrier is will. Companies need to recommit to change to scale and accelerate women's gains.

What's causing companies to deprioritize these initiatives? On the surface, it's the complexity of the market. But underneath, we may be facing fatigue before making enough progress. We need to reframe this as a non-zero-sum game and help all talent access the coaching and development they need.

What's Better for Women at Work

Women are often described as less apt to put themselves forward for promotion, but that doesn't mean they're less ambitious. The issue is the system and the hurdles they face. Over the past ten years, the biggest gains have been at the C-suite level, from 17% to 29%. However, there's fragility in this progress. Companies added seats at the C-suite but often in staff roles that don't lead to the CEO position. They also looked outside their organization to fill diverse talent seats instead of promoting from within.

Many things in corporate America have improved for women. Parental leave, bereavement leave, and elderly care are more common. Recruiting processes have also become more diverse, and flexibility has evolved. But we're still a long way from equal experience.

What's Slow to Change

Women tend to be the primary caretakers of children and aging parents. When companies talk about returning to the office, it raises concerns for working mothers. Returning to the office has benefits, but it may not fit everyone. The key is to architect your career with flexibility when needed. In society, we still haven't solved for the responsibilities beyond the workplace. Women are more likely to hold household and childcare responsibilities at home.

Reaching the C-suite is still hard for women. At the entry and managerial levels, there are structural barriers and a lack of diverse talent. For example, Latinas face the most challenging broken rung. They make up a small percentage of the entry pipe and the C-suite. The criteria for evaluating potential is often biased against women of color.

What's Worse

At the start, we don't see our fair share of diverse talent in the corporate pipeline. Women have graduated with more than 50% of college degrees but only make up 48% of the entry pipe. For Latinas, the numbers are even more challenging. They face the least equity in advancing to manager seats. The day-to-day experience for women, especially women of color, is different. They are challenged on their competency and don't get the same support as men.

What Can Be Done

Companies have made efforts to formalize hiring and advancement processes and look for bias. Technology can help identify and disrupt bias and even the playing field. Generative AI gives us new capabilities to debias and improve recruiting. Access to capital and entrepreneurship are also areas of optimism.

Practical suggestions for allyship include helping in the day-to-day experience, defending a woman colleague's work, and asking about professional ambitions. Leaders can also grade themselves on the diversity of their sponsored and mentored list.

To help women advance more quickly, we need discontinuous thinking. We need to think differently about entrepreneurship, technical skills, and the manager layer. We also need to collaborate with public sector entities to find solutions to childcare and other challenges.

We've seen progress, but we need to keep going. It will take rigor and persistence to root out bias and encourage change.