McKinsey & Company’s Women in the Workplace research, conducted annually with LeanIn.Org, highlights the persistent structural disparities in corporate advancement that begin with the very first promotion. One of its clearest findings is the so-called “broken rung”: at the critical step from entry level into management, women are promoted at significantly lower rates than men. In the most recent data, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only approximately 93 women receive that same promotion. The gap widens further for women of colour, with only around 74 women of colour promoted for every 100 men.
This early divergence shapes the entire leadership pipeline, reducing the pool of women who are eligible for senior and executive roles later in their careers. Even though women and men enter the workforce in similar numbers, these early promotion gaps mean that women become increasingly underrepresented at higher levels over time.
The research attributes much of this disparity to differences in access to career-accelerating opportunities, sponsorship, and stretch assignments, not differences in performance or ambition. Leaders are pushed to consider how evaluation criteria, development pathways, and promotion systems can inadvertently disadvantage women long before the C-suite.
For the full report and deeper insights into how the pipeline gap affects organisational performance and equity, read more here:
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace
