Organizations are best positioned to succeed when their leadership teams bring a variety of perspectives and backgrounds to the table. Despite this fact, many companies are still lacking in one fundamental marker of diversity and equality — the promotion pathways open to women leaders are lacking.
In the absence of support for women's elevation to top roles, leadership teams are often majority male, doing a disservice to female employees and companies at large. The question then becomes how to change this state and open lanes for women in leadership to thrive.
Factors to overcome include both organizational structures and mindsets that have remained stuck in an era of inequality. While more structural changes to the work landscape are an ongoing area of focus, individual women need to find paths forward with the present climate.
To assist with this need, there are targeted executive education programs that deal specifically with empowering women leaders. The courses are designed to help women candidates pursue the mantle of leadership at companies of all kinds, and then give them tips to succeed in top roles once they assume them.
See an example of executive education powering a female executive's career path.
The current state of women's representation in leadership
Looking at the data regarding women in leadership roles brings an immediate response: more progress is needed. Recent research paints a two-sided picture. The latest McKinsey & Company Women in the Workplace report found 29% of C-suite members are women. This number is far from full parity, while also representing a large increase from 17% in the 2015 study.
The report pointed out that progress rates will have to increase to see true equality soon. For women's representation in leadership to equal their representation in the overall U.S. population, it would take 48 years at the current rate of progress.
The issues with women's representation, which reach all the way to those senior leader positions, begin at the entry level. The McKinsey researchers found that with an unequal workforce starting at beginning positions, companies aren't capable of building strong and sustainable pathways that will allow women to become leaders in greater, more equitable numbers.
Management and the "broken rung"
The survey indicated that even beyond unequal hiring, there's another major hurdle for women in leadership: the first promotion that brings a worker from a rank-and-file employee into management. This is a "broken rung" on the corporate ladder. In the 2024 survey, 81 women received manager promotions for every 100 men. The data was very similar to the 2018 numbers — 79 women for every 100 men.
The broken-rung effect is more acute for women who don't identify as white. Black women, for example, are promoted into the management ranks at a rate of 54 for every 100 men. This type of inequality has created a corporate landscape where just 7% of C-suite roles are held by women of color.
Power and opportunity within the current climate
Since the current state of women's leadership opportunities remains deeply unequal, moving up within the corporate structure can require extra focus and planning. This is one important reason why executive education programs and courses directly target women planning to enter the leadership ranks or advance within them.
Engaging with executive education offerings such as the Women's Leadership Program, run by MIT Sloan professor Fiona Murray and Senior Lecturer Elsbeth Johnson, is a way to gain more information and context on the forces that often prevent women's progress through the ranks. From there, participants build knowledge of strategies that can help them move upward in their careers, while still remaining true to their identities as employees and leaders.
Hear an enlightening conversation on women's leadership development.
Barriers to overcome in increasing women's presence in leadership
The structural barriers perpetuating women's inequality in leadership take several forms, and they aren't always the same from one employer to another. Identifying common issues can help prepare individuals to overcome these issues.
Some of the most common issues don't involve overt bias or aggression from management but are rather based on the perpetuation of systems that are currently unequal. Progressing within and changing this status quo will take a strategic approach.
Some of the problems affecting today's companies include:
- Self-perpetuating stagnation: When asking why today's leaders disproportionately overlook women for promotion and advancement, it's worth considering the demographics of the people in power. The proportion of current leaders who are male and white is greater than in the population as a whole. Professors Murray and Johnson note that whether subliminally or overtly, these executives may promote successors who are similar to them, thus slowing change and progress.
- Expectations around the use of power: Socialization around the concept of who should seize power in the workplace can represent a major impediment to women progressing up the corporate ladder. Murray and Johnson explain that women in business may lack comfort with the idea of seeking and seizing power and authority within an organization. Building confidence in wanting power and realizing the importance of advocating for oneself are important steps in taking on new levels of authority.
- Microaggressions and bias: It's possible for employees to show bias toward their female colleagues without consciously realizing this is what they're doing. Norms in business tend to be set by male leaders to suit their own needs and expectations, and existing in these spaces can bring extra difficulties for women leaders who haven't been prepared for the situation and developed strategies to thrive.
- Issues with promotion pathways: The issues noted by McKinsey's researchers affect several steps on the corporate ladder. From unequal hiring numbers to challenges taking on a leadership role for the first time and beyond, numerous tasks are more difficult than they would be in an equitable business landscape. Programs such as mentorship may represent ways to change these norms, which makes them especially important.
From ingrained corporate structures to subliminal lessons that need to be unlearned, there are a variety of challenges perpetuating inequality in corporate spaces. By becoming more aware of these barriers, educating themselves to overcome them and advocating for large-scale evolution, women can set themselves up to be changemakers.
See how women are overcoming the structural challenges holding them back.
Gauging the impact of greater representation for women in leadership roles
Companies that perpetuate gender inequality on their leadership teams are doing more than failing to provide a just and equitable landscape for employees — they're simultaneously damaging their own chances of success. Greater diversity in management, which includes gender parity, is a differentiator in terms of corporate performance.
Women's skill sets and team success
Research by MIT Sloan Professor Thomas Malone, Carnegie Mellon Professor Anita Woolley and Geisinger Health System Professor Christopher Chabris has demonstrated that teams with more female members have a performance advantage at all levels of business. In fact, the study revealed that the positive impact of women's input keeps increasing even when team gender diversity goes beyond equality and women begin outnumbering men.
The professors indicated women's ability to raise the overall intelligence of teams, with a positive impact on both the financial bottom line and overall productivity. Some of this impact comes from a skill set more common in women than men known as social perceptiveness. This is a type of observational intelligence that helps employees understand and empathize with others' experiences.
Hearing many viewpoints and leading by example
Beyond the researchers' findings regarding skills and perception, they noted another reason why women in leadership tend to drive corporate success. Namely, companies with women in executive roles and on the board of directors tend to be more open to a variety of opinions, thoughts and inputs. This is a valuable trait in strategic development.
Organizations led exclusively by men may be closing themselves off to innovative ideas due to the similarity of background at the top of the corporate structure. Striking back against uniformity of thought can help businesses find a path that diverges from competitors and delivers a better chance of success.
Research that affirms the bottom-line value of breaking down barriers facing women in leadership can be a compelling counterargument to organizations that believe they don't need to change their unequal management structures.
The numbers confirming that companies are still promoting too few women demonstrate that this type of quantitative argument may still be necessary in pressuring companies to shift their thinking and evolve.
Learn what defines a capable, high-performing team and how norms can change in regard to women embracing leadership and power.
Executive education to prepare women for leadership
Some of the changes necessary to increase gender equality in corporate leadership will come from years of advocacy at all levels. Within this overall battle for parity, however, there are also individual steps women can take to advance their own careers, even as the system remains fraught with barriers.
Executive education represents one such path. Courses designed for women are based on imparting the skills, mindset and approach that can prepare participants to earn promotions and thrive with more authority.
Women's leadership development in focus
While learning offerings aimed at women seeking advancement can cover a variety of subject matter, The MIT Sloan Executive Education Women's Leadership Program serves as a good example of this concept in action. The four-day in-person course is designed to help participants by delivering research-based learnings, giving practical, actionable advice and providing networking opportunities.
The focus areas of the course demonstrate the kinds of lessons that women in business can benefit from, ones that don't apply as fully to their male colleagues. These focus points include:
- The intersection of authenticity and achievement: When women leaders get a clear and detailed look at the systems and expectations that can hold them back from achievement, they can develop strategies to move up in spite of these barriers. They can reconcile their authentic values and personal goals with thriving in environments designed from a male leader's point of view — and even start to shape them.
- Networking, communication and power: As for any executive, making strong connections within the industry can be a key factor in a woman's success at achieving ever-greater levels of authority. The difference when it comes to communication, collaboration and eventual advancement may come down to the idea of power — whether women are willing to seek and wield it. Executive education can reshape thinking around power and influence.
- Messaging, persuasion and negotiation: Since leaders' success comes from their ability to guide and motivate fellow employees, prospective executives can take significant value from lessons on communication. Women may be perceived differently from men at the negotiating table — this means specialized coursework is an important way to prepare female executives for leadership success, while bolstering their confidence in their own abilities.
- Driving change and putting influence to use: Due to the fact that inequality is deeply ingrained in corporate structures, it's natural for a discussion of women's leadership to include systematic change. Women who achieve power under the current conditions can wield influence to change corporate structures for the better, creating a world where opportunities for executive promotion are more egalitarian.
Women who engage in executive education courses can learn valuable techniques from top industry thinkers in settings where women's voices are foregrounded by design. This equips them to seek out a promising feature, pursuing their specific goals with authenticity.
Learn how MIT Sloan's Advanced Management Program (AMP) helped an accomplished woman engineer and executive transform her career.
What's your ideal path to greater leadership success?
Each individual will find their own preferred path as they progress up the corporate ladder and into the job of their dreams. These personal approaches will differ based on a number of factors including:
- Stage of their career and tenure.
- Industry of choice and personal interests within that sector.
- Current employer's level of equality and equality and support.
- Educational background, undergraduate and beyond.
There are numerous steps on the path to a leadership position, and women seeking to climb the ladder may encounter unique challenges and triumphs at each one. From a first managerial role to an ascent into the C-suite, there are plenty of milestones to accomplish through a long career, and executive education can help lay out a path to success.
Read much more about women's leadership offerings at MIT Sloan Executive Education.