The glass ceiling – why companies get it wrong
Contrary to popular belief a woman’s biggest career pain point is not ‘the glass ceiling’.
It’s becoming a manager.
Prime attention on the senior segment is a surface level treatment for a problem that starts at the bottom of the organization. Companies optimize an already small and shrinking pool of senior women instead of creating a bigger talent pool to begin with.
But even if companies created a bigger talent pool of women, that alone would not guarantee a higher number of female leaders. Companies additionally need to understand the six self-biases that keep women from advancing at the same rate as men.
This article outlines what those 6 self-biases are so companies can be more targeted in their efforts.
Data shows: a woman’s biggest career pain point is at the step-up to managerial level
Data backs the statement that a woman’s biggest career pain point is getting to managerial level. In 2018 LeanIn.Org and McKinsey’s workplace report first provided data and called it ‘the broken rung’.
“The biggest obstacle women face on the path to senior leadership is at the first step up to manager. (…) This broken rung results in more women getting stuck at the entry level and fewer women becoming managers. Not surprisingly, men end up holding 62 percent of manager-level positions, while women hold just 38 percent. This early inequality has a long-term impact on the talent pipeline. Since men significantly outnumber women at the manager level, there are significantly fewer women to hire or promote to senior managers. The number of women decreases at every subsequent level. So even as hiring and promotion rates improve for women at senior levels, women as a whole can never catch up. There are simply too few women to advance.” (Women in the Workplace, McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org, 2019, p. 11)
A Danish example is provided by The Female Force 2025 report by Egon Zehnder and Bain & Company with numbers from 2023.
Graduate numbers for women are significantly higher than men’s, yet men are a lot more likely to make it to the first managerial levels than women. The loss of female talent in early career is significant, then gradually further decreases with a final significant drop at the step-up to CEO level.
Why do women struggle to get to manager level?
Female talent is lost at the bottom of the pyramid for two reasons: 1) lack of talent- or diversity management for women in early career and 2) individual behaviour
While The Women in the Workplace report provides clear evidence that women get stuck prior to the first management level, it provides little rationel as to why. Implicitly it mentions that companies don’t have the same structures and policies in place for advancement at the junior level as they have at senior level. The article further supports a numerical approach: “As more women become managers, there will be more women to promote and hire at each subsequent level.”
I will argue that the numerical argument is valid but incomplete. Individual factors also keep women from advancing. To understand this, we will look at the example of L’Oréal.
In 2017 L’Oréal has been recognized as the global leader in gender diversity with currently 69% women in their total workforce (68% in 2022). If female career advancement was purely about having more women in the pipeline, we would expect these numbers to be reflected on the C-level. Yet numbers only show 31% women on the executive board (32% in 2022). Despite the majority of employees being women, the numbers are basically reversed at the top level. So, if the pipeline is full and the company has the necessary attention on gender diversity, what else keeps women from advancing?
Individual behaviour.
My qualitative research shows that women display strong self-biases that keep them from advancing at the same rate as men. That means individual behaviour (self-bias) outweighs organisational efforts in some cases. An example of that would be if companies have promotion targets for a particular level (org. effort), but women still don‘t apply (self-bias).
So let’s take a closer look at what happens on the individual level.
6 individual pain points that keep women from advancing
Young professional women display six self-biases that keep them from stepping into managerial roles. The 6 themes stem from 35+ qualitative interviews with female top talent working in global companies such as Microsoft, IBM, BCG, Novonordisk, Accenture, Maersk, UBS etc. Questions were open-ended and in-depth. Participants were asked about a) their aspirations and b) their biggest career pain points.
The 6 biggest challenges to get to management level are:
1 False belief that over-performance leads to advancement
Women in early career often believe that if they work hard, their performance is recognized and leads to promotion. However, achievements don’t speak for themselves. Literally. Bosses and peers are busy with their own things – achieving their targets, managing a team and dealing with burning business priorities. If achievements and strengths are not brought to their attention, they won‘t know. Paired with the false belief ‘over-performance leads to advancement’ often comes discomfort to verbalize achievements. Most women would rather run than self-promote.
2 Humbleness and unclear expectations of what a manager does
Men often already have a clear picture of where they want to go in the hierarchy when they start out their career while women are focussed on the job at hand being motivational. “It’s more important that I am passionate about the job than where in the hierarchy or what I earn”. When asked about their career aspirations, young professional women were often denying wanting a managerial position, but then went on to describe exactly that. They mentioned enjoying managing and motivating a team. Not voicing the desire for a management position was a mix of unclear expectations of what managing a team means, paired with not voicing ambition because it could be seen as displaying ego. Women are often less explicit in their ambitions because openly aspiring to a management position still comes with stigma. In some cases interviewees also reported that they were actively encouraged to slow down when voicing ambition.
3 Getting caught up in operational work
Moving to managerial level requires strategic work, the ability to delegate and being strict with priorities. Women often don’t want to accept that they can’t do everything (perfectly). They are doing all the work, but not necessarily the work that is important to get to the next level. Interviewees not only had high standards for their own work but often also picked up the ball’s others’ dropped without being conscious of it. Some of the reasons are: Firstly, they tend to say yes to new requests before considering if it is a) their priority or b) their responsibility. Secondly, they want to be seen as strong team players and thirdly, because they hate if things do not get executed properly (see one example here). All of this leads to getting caught up in operational work (also the classic example of organising the summer party), instead of spending time on tasks that would qualify them for the next level.
4 Hesitation to tap into a broader network
Career advancement not only comes with good performance but also requires sponsorship and a strong network. Interviewees felt they need to have a close relationship before asking for an introduction, a favour or a knowledge exchange. A personal eye-opener from attending a mostly male conference a few years back: The format for networking was ‘Hi, I am … This is what I am looking for. You? Let’s help each other out’. Contacts, tips, introductions were openly traded without any prior connection. Building relationships remains important but not all cases require a deep and established relationship. Young professional women were also more hesitant to reach out to a broader network for fear of being seen as incompetent.
5 Externalizing success and low self-confidence
A managerial position and reaching for a new opportunity requires confidence. Confidence comes from being aware of our own skills and qualities. It is recognizing that our success is directly related to our own contribution and input. My interviews often revealed some version of “by chance I had a good CV”. We are talking highly accomplished female talents that attributed past success to external circumstances like chance, colleagues or a favourable economic situation. Low self-confidence is also a recurring theme in my coaching practice which generally has coachees and interviewees be more hesitant when opportunities with a clear step-up come up. For extensive research on women and self-confidence, refer to The Confidence Gap.
6 Extreme personal investment
In all interviews I found that young professional women are not only extremely invested in their jobs but also spend tremendous time and effort considering their next moves, their behaviours and their opinions. While personal investment is a good thing, when a healthy distance is lacking, every statement and action also bears the risk of failure. One interviewee working at Maersk, a global shipping and logistics company, said: ‘I am not asking my manager for a promotion because I am afraid of embarrassing myself’. Tiptoeing around when expressing their opinion or not expressing it at all out of fear of backlash or saying something wrong was a shared experience. At the same time doing exactly that – making decision, expressing opinions and the risk of not being liked at times – is part of being a manager and being seen as having the potential to be a manager.
To sum up, the 6 individual career pain points outlined above keep young professional women from advancing. One could argue that since these 6 pain points refer to self-bias, it is young professional women’s own responsibility to address them. Many do and often successfully, fx by working with a coach but it then becomes a one-woman-at-the-time exercise when companies are in a prime position to take those pain points into consideration in their diversity efforts.
A clear statement also has to be made that companies are often shaping and promoting those self-biases rather than challenging them. Women get actively encouraged to slow down when repeatedly voicing ambition, they get backlash when negotiating their salary, chosen to pick up admin tasks when their male peers get stretch assignments or are not invited to the football game with the rest of the team.
Thus, if companies really are serious about advancing women at the same rate as men, they need to address these individual pain points systematically.
Recommendations for companies to get more female managers
The overall conclusion from the qualitative and quantitative data is clear: if companies want more women at the top, they need to fix the talent leak at the bottom of the pyramid. This is done by 1) making systemic changes (organisational bias) and by 2) addressing the 6 individual pain points women face (self-bias).
Addressing company bias / systemic changes (on all levels) ensures that the women who want to advance in their career, have a more equal playing field. Measures such as parental policies benefiting both parents, closing salary gaps and implementing smart technology for example to ensure inclusive job adds are all great measures to implement. And, those measures alone do not ‘produce’ more female managers. Especially when they are too generic and become a mere ‘unconscious bias training we once did’.
Addressing self-bias is therefore needed and arguably more effective. It directly tackles the pain points at the step-up to managerial level, ensuring more women in executive roles and on boards down the road. Companies are particularly suited to address pain points 1 – 3:
- Humbleness and unclear expectations what a manager does
- Getting caught up in operational work
- False belief that over-performance leads to advancement
A straightforward action for companies is to map entry positions for the first management level and put solid succession planning behind those roles. This is already a big step since succession plans are often only made for top ranks and key strategic positions. At the same time they should create transparency around what is needed to get to managerial level (1,3) and be deliberate about which tasks are handed (and not handed) to young professional women (2).
Knowing women in most cases will not naturally and overtly position themselves for these roles, supervisors and HR do good actively encouraging women for the managerial track (1, 3). I also see a huge opportunity for more senior women to educate about these 6 pain points and share the lessons they wish they had in early career.
Summary
A woman’s biggest career pain point is not the glass ceiling – it’s getting to manager level. If companies are serious about advancing more women they need to a) shift talent- and diversity efforts to pre-manager level and b) truly understand the 6 pain points that keep women from advancing at the same rate as men. Finally, c) rather than building generic trainings, they have to systematically build that knowledge into their career advancement practices at the step up to managerial level.
A final note…
When I first published and wrote this article in 2019, I had also developed a program called ‘Limitless‘ to support women to get to managerial level. Incorporating everything I saw in my interview and coaching practice. I still believe it’s a kick-ass and resource efficient talent program for companies, but: too much responsibility is placed on women, rather than integrating it with company practices.
I want to see this research being put to good use and adapted.
Please reach out for collaborations ([email protected]) and I’ll happily share what I know.
Summary
A woman’s biggest career pain point is not the glass ceiling – it’s getting to manager level.
SOLUTIONS
- Shift talent- and diversity efforts to pre-manager level
- Understand the 6 pain points at the individual level
- Implement measures to address organizational bias and self-bias at the step-up to manager