Women in leadership:
Why perception outpaces the pipeline and what to do about it

First, the good news. Finally, in 2023, there are more women in the C-suite and sitting on executive boards. It has inched up to 12% for both. These are incremental increases but still nowhere close to parity. But after years of inertia, they signal positive momentum.

Now, the bad news. Not enough of these talented, skilled, early career professional women are making it to the next level. 2023 saw the largest drop—10 points—in the percentage of women from junior professional to senior professional. Not only is this the most substantial thinning out from one role to the next, it is the largest decrease we have seen in our surveys. And that means there are not enough women in the pipeline for future senior leadership roles.

At this pace, how long will it take before organizations achieve gender parity in leadership? At the current rate of change for the C-suite, we calculate it will be more like three decades.

Our 2019 report confirmed that women remained significantly under-represented in leadership positions at work—despite economic opportunities fueled by the longest running bull market in history. Our 2021 study launched as communities around the world began their COVID-19 lockdowns. During the months that followed, record numbers of women left the workplace. The soaring mental, physical, and emotional load of the pandemic prompted many women to reflect on their careers—were the pressures worth it, or should they be doing something else—a stocktaking that contributed to the departure of professional women in the Great Resignation.

Competitive organizations responded by adjusting work practices, enabling flexible and remote work where conditions allowed and creating special return-to-work programs to ease reentry for those who took leaves of absence from their careers. While not exclusively intended for women, these measures helped many continue working. More organizations have embraced these practices over the past two years.

Even though our data corroborates what other studies have shown—that gender equity can be a performance enhancer—organizations have not taken the difficult steps to enable inclusivity in leadership. By dragging their feet, they risk eroding the progress made over the last few years, as evidenced by the dips in the pipeline of female talent.

These dips are destined to get deeper. Our study shows in just the next 12 months, as many as 30% of women say they plan to actively seek a new job. 30% expect to leave their jobs temporarily to care for family. Nearly as many, 27%, anticipate having to resign for physical or mental health reasons. And 24% simply say they plan to leave the workforce permanently.