Supporting female employees: Building a stronger leadership pipeline 

Research shows that women only hold around 29% of C-suite and management positions and that they get less support at every career stage than men. But diverse voices create more agile and innovative organizations. So, how can we do a better job supporting female employees for leadership roles? 

Last year, McKinsey and LeanIn.Org released their 11^th annual Women in the Workplace report. So, let’s explore their most recent findings to see whether this trend has improved, stayed the same, or gotten worse. 

Although there has been some improvement in the past few years, the gender gap in leadership is still clear to see. We can point to a variety of factors behind this, from toxic aspects of workplace culture to the highly politicized anti-DEI movement. 

Over the past 11 years, more than 1,000 companies and nearly half a million employees have participated in surveys for these reports. For the 2025 report, McKinsey surveyed around 9,500 employees from 124 companies employing approximately 3 million people in total.

This article was originally published March 4th, 2022, and has since been updated. 

The gender promotion gap in 2025 

For every 100 men promoted to management, organizations only promoted 93 women (compared to 87 in the eighth annual report). Despite this improvement, women from minority ethnic backgrounds were more significantly disadvantaged. Only 60 black women were promoted for every 100 men, for example, which was the largest racial disparity. 

A 7% difference may not seem like much. But it’s indicative of larger, institutional issues. To make matters worse, it’s compounded by problems further down the pipeline. 

For some first-hand insights into the barriers faced by women in leadership, we turned to Zensai’s own Head of Community and Events, Marie-Claire Silfer (MC to her friends!). As the founder of Saleswomen Unite and co-leader of Women of SaaS (Copenhagen), she’s more than familiar with the ways businesses struggle with supporting female employees. 

“Leadership is aspirational for many. Yet, if you don’t see women in leadership roles, it’s much harder to imagine yourself there. Representation really matters. When women can see others who’ve walked the path before them, it suddenly feels possible. That’s why shining a light on female leaders and founders is so important.“

The management pipeline has a bottleneck 

Diversity at work, and in leadership, can be a huge benefit to business innovation. But, all the same, there’s a bottleneck for women in the workplace. To start effectively supporting female employees, we need to understand it and its causes. 

According to LinkedIn data reviewed for the World Economic Forum, women comprised 41.2% of the overall workforce in 2024. At the same time, they made up only 28.8% of management positions in general. More specifically, McKinsey and LeanIn.Org found that only 29% of C-suite roles are occupied by women. This similarity suggests a connection between the number of women in C-suites and the rate at which other women reach management positions. 

But why else would women get promoted so much less frequently than male peers? According to McKinsey’s findings, it’s because organizations consistently fail at supporting female employees in the management pipeline: 

• 30% of women were promoted within two years compared to 43% of men. 

Women had less formal sponsorship at every level: 

• Entry level: 31% of women vs 45% of men 

• Mid-level: 51% of women vs 54% of men 

• Senior level: 66% of women vs 72% of men 

Women also received less informal support. This includes connection to helpful contacts, being put forward for promotion, and getting recommended for stretch assignments. 

As MC puts it, “In my experience, mentorship is incredibly valuable, but sponsorship is often what truly accelerates a career. It’s about having people in your corner who advocate for you when you’re not in the room, who say your name when opportunities come up and who genuinely have your back. Building a network of incredible female and male leaders who’ve championed my work has played a huge role in my own journey.”

The intersectional gender gap 

According to McKinsey, women from minority ethnic backgrounds were more adversely affected than women overall. Asian women are less likely than others to reach a VP position and 51% report not getting any career-building support. 

Meanwhile, nearly a third of Black women in McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace study report worrying their racial identity would hold them back at work. And over one third of women with disabilities reported a similar belief about their disabled status. 

At each level, there are issues that can prevent women advancing or even drive them out of the workplace entirely. 

But this isn’t simply a gap in ambition. Statistical ambition gaps disappear when men and women receive comparable sponsorship and support. So, there’s no justification for not supporting female employees.

Even egalitarian employers aren’t immune

Even if you don’t think this is an issue for your business, employees who “merit” consideration are statistically more likely to be men. So, you’re more likely to promote them even if you see yourself as egalitarian. In a way, loss of female talent at entry level is the biggest contributor. It’s basically the first stone causing the dam to fall.

Why are women leaving leadership roles? 

The end result of all this is that women are leaving leadership roles at a much greater rate than male leaders. And understanding why is key to supporting female employees in 2026. So, why is this happening? 

Well… how long have you got? 

If we went in-depth on every issue affecting women in the workplace, we’d fill a library. But, broadly speaking, we can break these factors down into two categories: Internal and external. 

Internal factors 

By internal factors, we mean aspects of the employee experience that cause women to consider a career change. Properly supporting female employees means addressing these issues at the root. According to Deloitte’s Global Women @ work 2025 report, women regularly experience the following issues: 

• Only 43% report getting adequate support for mental health. 

• Nearly 90% believe their managers would think negatively of them if they admitted to mental health difficulties. 

• Just 1 in 10 believe managers would know how to respond appropriately to women’s health issues (e.g. menstruation, menopause, and fertility). 

When asked what would improve their likelihood of staying, women cited: 

• Clear advancement opportunities (43%) 

• Flexible work for all (37%) 

• Protection from excessive workloads (32%) 

Finally, the McKinsey report found women are more likely than men to experience: 

• Being interrupted or talked over 

• Having their competence questioned 

• Feeling less safe/comfortable taking risks or disagreeing at work 

It doesn’t take much to see that this behavior is clearly counterintuitive to the idea of supporting female employees at work. 

External factors 

External factors are reasons to quit that don’t stem from your specific workplace culture. These include: 

• Other job opportunities 

• Side-hustle culture 

• Outdated societal pressures 

Of course, some of these factors won’t be gender specific. We’re all guilty of eyeing job listings for potentially greener pastures, and side-hustle culture means every other person has an Etsy store or some kind of freelance career these days.

The social pressures women face

But women at work frequently encounter outdated social standards. Things like the idea that motherhood should be a priority, or that working mothers are somehow trying to “have it all” while working fathers are praised as dedicated providers. 

Then there’s all the upkeep women perform to support their families. According to Deloitte’s study, women are still responsible for the majority of unpaid domestic and care work even when they’re the primary breadwinners in their households.

Supporting female employees with 3 simple steps 

To better support female employees, businesses need to be willing to address issues in their work culture. This means addressing obstacles and checking biases to ensure fair and effective performance management. 

Give women a voice in your business

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times. If you want employees to engage with your work culture, you need to make their voices heard. One of the best ways to support female employees (or, really, any staff member) is with a regular check-in. 

Giving women a way to flag issues and obstacles affecting their career progression is essential for supporting female employees. Those issues might include personal needs, like help with work stress, or more job flexibility. But it also means the blockers making things tougher for women throughout your organization. 

If you want to remove a problem by its root, you need to listen to the people most affected by it. That doesn’t just mean women, but your BAME and LGBTQ+ employees, and your employees with disabilities too. 

Mentorship and sponsorship can help women advance their careers 

Mentorships and sponsorships can pay career dividends for both the mentor and mentee. For mentors, it’s a chance to show off leadership skills, an understanding of workplace culture, and their abilities as a coach. For mentees, it’s the benefit of someone else’s wisdom. 

Mentorships can benefit just about anyone. But it’s women and members of minority groups who stand to benefit the most. Having someone fighting in your corner can make it easier to overcome unfair treatment. 

But it’s especially helpful when your mentor or sponsor is someone who’s been through what you’re experiencing. Case in point, finding female mentors for female employees. Someone who’s experienced misogyny first-hand to help female talent to self-advocate, handle stressful HR situations, and navigate work culture. And, as a bonus, female mentors get the chance to nurture the next generation of women in leadership roles. 

Connect recognition with succession 

For our final point, we want to connect employee recognition with succession planning. Given that employers often overlook women’s discretionary efforts, and others take credit for their ideas, we must do better. Check-ins go a long way towards helping with employee recognition, but you have to be active about it too. Don’t just acknowledge hard work privately but offer visibility and open praise too. 

With a solid succession plan, you often have a clear idea of who will fill what vacancy in case of a departure. In that sense, sometimes, employers decide candidates before you’re aware there’s a promotion. If women at work got credit for their contributions, we’d probably see a lot more women in leadership roles today.

Some final words from MC Silfer

“For a long time, leadership environments were shaped without women in the room. Those who did reach leadership often felt they had to adapt to a ‘male’ way of leading just to fit in. What we need now is more women owning their voice and leading as themselves, and more communities and organizations actively spotlighting female leaders so others can see what’s possible. Wednesday Women, Women of SaaS are just some that are already breaking the status quo.”  

Supporting female employees is an easy win  

It’s important to remember that the institutional barriers women encounter at work are there because of implicit bias. When you put that bias aside, supporting female employees becomes easy. 

It’s a win/win situation where build a more innovative and supportive workplace culture. You’ll also support future leader succession planning by attracting more diverse talent on top of the women in leadership you already have. 

But we acknowledge that shedding your biases isn’t easy. If you aren’t sure where to begin, start with our guide on how to be a better manager!