At a Glance

  • McKinsey notes that although women are still far from parity with men at every level of the corporate ladder, from entry-level to senior management to the C-suite, corporate America's commitment to diversity is weakening.
  • Women hold 29% of C-suite positions, up from 17% in 2015, but McKinsey's annual Women in the Workplace survey of 281 organizations with over 10 million employees shows that women are still less likely than men to get entry-level jobs and their first promotion to manager.
  • "While there are bright spots indicating momentum at many companies, we also see that commitment to diversity is declining," McKinsey said in the report, released with LeanIn.org. "Women's prospects and day-to-day experiences have not changed much compared with nearly a decade ago, or have even worsened."

In-Depth Insights

Other recent reports on women's status in the workplace also paint a mixed picture.

The Pew Research Center said in February that women's progress in wage growth, labor force participation, and advancement to senior management has stalled in recent years. "The gender gap remains vast at the highest levels of government and business leadership."

Pew said women's share of the labor force rose to 47% last year, up from 30% in 1950, "but growth has stalled." Citing projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pew said women will make up slightly less than half of the labor force by 2032.

Pew noted that since the fourth quarter of 2019, women have outnumbered men among college-educated workers.

Meanwhile, Pew data shows that in the 10 highest-paying occupations, about one-third of workers are women, up from 13% in 1980, but still far below men.

McKinsey said that within corporate America, women have made gains at every employee level. "However, progress is especially fragile, particularly for women of color, who remain underrepresented at every level and view gender and race as obstacles to advancement," the report said.

McKinsey described how companies can remove common barriers women face when advancing to management roles, including:

Creating or strengthening programs aimed at advancing women.Career development and mentorship programs can level the playing field for women, a McKinsey spokesperson said, citing insights from the report.

The spokesperson said companies should consider requiring men to participate more actively, noting that men "are critical to advancing women because of their position in the workforce and in leadership roles."

Harnessing the power of managers.Companies should make gender equality a priority for managers while ensuring they have the resources they need.

Managers play a key role in promoting equality because "they interact directly with employees and have influence in the promotion process," a McKinsey spokesperson said in an email response.

Strengthening performance evaluations.Companies should consider promoting gender equality when evaluating employee performance, the spokesperson said.

"Companies that focus on core de-biasing practices—clear evaluation criteria, bias training, bias reminders, and the use of diverse candidate slates—have better outcomes in terms of women's representation," the McKinsey spokesperson said.