Women in Corporate America Face Unique Challenges

LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company released the 10th annual Women in the Workplace report, the largest and most comprehensive study on the state of women in Corporate America. The report provides a detailed analysis of women’s representation and their experiences navigating the corporate ladder over the past decade. This year’s report reveals that over the past 10 years, women have made gains in the workplace, specifically at the top: Women today hold 29% of C-suite positions, up from 17% in 2015. Without real commitment from companies, the progress women have made over the last 10 years is not sustainable.

The report is based on data and insights from 1,000 participating companies and more than 480,000 people surveyed on their workplace experiences between 2015 and 2024. This year’s edition, which draws on data collected from over 280 companies, offers insights into the unique barriers faced by women, highlights the actions taken by companies to address these challenges and identifies where further work remains to be done.

STATE OF WOMEN IN 2024
Over the past decade, there have been important gains for women at every level of the corporate pipeline, particularly in senior leadership, but that progress is fragile and at risk of declining, especially for women of color. And at the highest level – the C-suite – gains in representation will be nearly impossible to replicate in the years to come. Based on the current rate of progress, we are nearly 50 years away from reaching parity for all women in Corporate America.

• Women make up 29% of C-suite positions, up from 17% in 2015. Yet, overall, women of color represent 7% of C-suite positions. White men remain the most represented at every level of leadership, while women of color (either Black women, Asian women or Latinas) are the least represented.

• Latinas are the most underrepresented group. While they are 9.6% of the population, Latinas are only 1.4% of the C-suite.

• At the current rate, it will take women of color 48 years – or two generations – to reach parity and white women 22 years.

• Despite progress made, commitments to gender and racial diversity are declining.

10-YEAR LOOKBACK AT WOMEN’S PROGRESS
Women still face the same early-career headwinds they did a decade ago and continue to enter the workforce at a disadvantage. Then, at the first critical step up to manager, women are far less likely to get promoted – and this is not improving.

• Women continue to experience the “broken rung” – a phenomenon where entry-level men are promoted to manager at much higher rates than women. This causes women to fall behind early in their careers and never catch up.

• In 2018, for every 100 men who received the first promotion to manager, 79 women received the same opportunity. Today, that number is 81.

• It’s even worse for women of color. For every 100 men promoted to manager, just 54 Black women (down to 2020 levels) and 65 Latinas (since the research began) get the same opportunity.

• Black women’s representation drops dramatically – by nearly two-thirds – from entry-level to director.

10-YEAR LOOKBACK AT COMPANY ACTIONS AND MANAGER SUPPORT
Companies have implemented more practices to make hiring and performance reviews fair. However, there is room for improvement. Only about one in four companies have adopted the five core practices experts recommend, and the persistence of the broken rung points to the need for companies to take bolder steps.

Companies are investing fewer resources into women’s advancement – offering fewer mentorship, sponsorship, internship and recruitment programs geared toward women.

• 16% offer formal sponsorship programs with specific content for women (down from 24% in 2022); for women of color, it’s 8% (down from 16% in 2022).

• 34% offer recruiting programs and 11% offer internship programs focused on women (down from 48% and 24% in 2022).

Companies have dramatically expanded employee work-life benefits. Almost all companies today provide critical support for employees who are parents, caregivers or struggling with health challenges. These benefits are especially helpful to women, who are more likely to have caregiving responsibilities.

• In 2024, 96% of companies offered maternity leave, 93% offered paternity leave and eight in 10 offered benefits for fertility treatments and adoption or surrogacy.

• Half of companies provide emergency back-up childcare services, up from a third in 2016.

• More companies also provide illness and lossrelated leaves: 34% offer compassionate leave, up from 25% in 2023.

Commitments to gender and racial diversity are declining. Companies should be building on their positive momentum.

Given the level of work it will take to do this effectively, companies’ declining commitments to gender and racial diversity are problematic. On top of this, employees’ relatively low and stagnant commitment to diversity points to the importance of both educating and engaging employees.

• 78% of companies say gender diversity is a high priority (down from 87% in 2019), and 69% say racial diversity is a high priority (down from 77% in 2019).

• In 2019, 67% of women managers and 57% of men managers said gender diversity is a high priority for them. In 2024, those percentages are 63% and 53%.

• In 2019, 62% of women managers and 57% of men managers said racial diversity is a high priority. In 2024, those percentages are 58% and 51%.

Despite an increase in women’s representation and expanded company efforts, the workplace has not gotten better for women. Women continue to see their gender and race as barriers to advancement, and women today are no more optimistic about how their gender will impact their career advancement: One in four say their gender will make it harder, and one in three say it has already contributed to missed opportunities. In fact, this stands out as the area of least progress across the 10 years of this study.

Younger women are the most susceptible to ageism – half of women under 30 say their age has been a barrier to advancing.

• Younger women are twice as likely as younger men to cite their age as a source of unwanted attention from co-workers.

Women remain more likely than men to have their competence challenged and undermined at work. Women today are also more likely than men to face comments or interactions that call their competence into question or undermine their leadership.

• 38% of women, compared to 26% of men, have had their judgment questioned in their area of expertise.

• LGBTQ+ women and women with disabilities stand out for facing more competence-based microaggressions.

Women are just as likely today to experience interactions with colleagues that make them feel isolated and undervalued at work. This is particularly pronounced for women of color, LGBTQ+ women and women with disabilities.

• 28% of LGBTQ+ women feel they can’t talk about themselves or life outside of work (similar to 25% in 2019).

• 23% of Black women, 15% of Latinas and 16% of Asian women have heard others express surprise at their language skills or other abilities.

• Women who experience three or more microaggressions are 4.2 times more likely to feel burned out, 2.7x more likely to consider leaving their company and 4.5x more likely to think their gender will make it harder to advance.