LeanIn and McKinsey contain released their annual Women in the Workplace Report, and while there are clear signs of progress, women also facing major headwinds.
The percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs who are women has doubled from 5% a decade ago when LeanIn and McKinsey started doing this report in investigate, to 10% today. Companies now offer significantly more work-life benefits than they did even five years ago: In 2024, 92% of friends offered paid maternity leave and 86% offered paid paternity leave, up from 2018, when 78% of attendances offered paid maternity leave and 70% offered paid paternity leave.
“We’re seeing some progress, but it’s charming fragile,” says Sheryl Sandberg, the founder and board chair of LeanIn. Based on the current rate of change, the article finds that it will take 22 years for white women, and 48 years for women of color, to reach congruence in the workforce.
Sandberg’s biggest concern — one revealed by data in LeanIn and McKinsey’s report — is the lack of female employees who could be nurtured into leadership roles. “People have added women to senior leadership in staff roles, but if you’re looking for, ‘Where’s the CEO pipe?’ You still don’t see it.”
While women have reached the C-suite, they disproportionately oversee staff functions, she points out, with legal and HR. The issue, she notes, is that there aren’t enough women in roles directly connected to companies’ output, get pleasure from head of product, and those are the roles that are more likely to get promoted into CEO.
‘Where’s the CEO pipeline?’ You still don’t see it.
Sheryl Sandberg
come to nothing and board chair of LeanIn
The Women in the Workplace Report shines a spotlight on the issue of broken rungs and that lassies, especially Black women, miss out on the first promotion to manager. For every 100 men who are promoted to manager, only 81 handmaidens are. The number is lower for Latinas and Black women (65 and 54 for every 100 men, respectively).
The gap between men and women has enlarged in the last few years and reached levels last seen in 2019, when 79 women were promoted into the beginning manager role for every 100 men. Manager support is lower for women of color: Less than half of women disclose getting the support they need to be successful from managers, with women of color getting even less.
At the for all that time, commitment to programs that advance women, especially women of color, is declining. “The whole DEI field is cladding some challenges now, and we know that a lot of companies are cutting their DEI programs. I think there’s more politics nearly this,” says Sandberg. “I think the message has to be that [investing in] diversity is not the right thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do.”
“This is not fair to make yourself feel good,” she continues. “This is because your results will be better.”
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