For all the talk about their progress in corporate America, women are moving ahead so slowly it will take more than a century for them to reach parity in top positions, according to a new study.
“Women face greater barriers to advancement and a steeper path to senior leadership,” says the study, conducted by McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.org. Fewer women than men at every level hold the type of operating, or “line,” roles that lead to the C-suite, the report found, based on a poll of 118 large companies in North America and 30,000 employees.
The authors calculated it will take 100 years to achieve gender equality in top management based on the rate of progress in the past three years. The study disputes the frequently evoked explanation that women are under-represented in these positions because they drop out of the work force to have children. On the contrary, it says men are more likely than women to leave a company at every stage of their careers. It also found that women with children are 15 percent more likely to be interested in a senior job than women without children.
Even so, women were less eager than men to become top executives. “There’s something that’s on the path to leadership that disproportionately affects women,” said Rachel Thomas, president of LeanIn.org, founded by Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. “We feel that’s rooted in bias.”
Career Obstacle
Women were more likely than men to cite stress as a career obstacle, the study found. That’s not surprising, Thomas said. “Women are less well-liked when they take the lead, which means they are less likely to be advanced,” and this “can create a lot of stress.”
Some 43 percent of women said they had been denied a promotion, raise or assignment because of their gender. Few men perceived such bias: Only 12 percent said women don’t have the same opportunities they do.
Though corporations increasingly talk the equality talk -- almost three quarters say gender diversity is a top priority for their CEOs -- fewer than half their workers of either gender believe them, the study said. Many employees fail to take advantage of programs their companies offer, such as extended family leave, because they fear it will hurt their careers.
Track Attitudes
The report advises businesses to create metrics for women’s advancement, including compensation, promotion rates, attrition and hiring. They also should track employee attitudes. “An organization can’t change what they don’t see,” Thomas said.