This lack of progress is disheartening. I was fortunate to benefit from one of the ways to fix it: having a sponsor who can help open doors (see below). I know this made a difference for me in moving up to a higher level of leadership.
While women have made significant gains over the last decade, only half of companies are now prioritizing women’s career advancement, reflecting a multi-year decline in commitment to gender diversity. This lack of focus is having a measurable impact: women remain underrepresented at every level of the pipeline, with representation in the C-suite stuck at just 29 percent.
To turn the tide in 2026, organizations must move beyond slogans and address the systemic barriers that are currently rolling back progress.
The Persistence of the “Broken Rung”
The primary obstacle to a diverse leadership pipeline remains the “broken rung” at the first step up to manager. For every 100 men promoted to manager in 2025, only 93 women were promoted, and the gap is even wider for women of color. Because men significantly outnumber women at the manager level from the start, women can never catch up, leaving the leadership pipeline depleted at every subsequent level. This gap is not due to a lack of dedication; the research shows that women and men are equally committed to their careers, yet women receive less of the critical support needed to advance.
The Hidden Barriers: Sponsorship and Stigma
Two critical factors are widening the gap between male and female advancement:
A Roadmap for Organizational Change
How to improve results? Organizations can adopt three key strategies:
1. Ensure Hiring and Promotions are Merit-BasedCompanies must implement a comprehensive set of research-backed practices rather than isolated initiatives. This includes setting clear evaluation criteria before the process begins, anonymizing resumes, and using quantifiable measures (like 1-to-5 ratings) to reduce subjectivity. When clear criteria are used, subjective, biased comments about women in performance reviews have been shown to drop from 14% to just 1%.
2. Prioritize Development Managers are the primary drivers of an employee’s day-to-day experience, yet many lack the time to focus on development. Organizations should free up managers from routine tasksto allow them to spend more time coaching their teams. Training is also essential; when managers are trained to provide specific, actionable feedback and to distribute stretch assignments fairly, team motivation and performance rise.
3. Foster Authentic Sponsorship and CommunityFormal sponsorship programs are vital for giving women access to senior-level advocates. Beyond formal programs, organizations can strengthen Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)to provide the informal mentorship and professional advice that women often miss out on. In 2025, 91% of the companies surveyed are maintaining or scaling up their ERGs to build the community and empathy necessary for an inclusive culture.
The Bottom Line
Limiting women in leadership isn’t only a diversity issue; it’s a financial one. Women leaders drive higher employee engagement and better performance, saving their organizations an estimated $1.43 million for every 1,000 employees through reduced disengagement. As we move forward in 2026, the companies that recommit to women’s advancement and leverage AI to root out bias will be the ones that win the war for talent.
I love working with strong and successful women in how they can move up and in how all organizational leaders can improve their financial results by increasing the number of women in leadership. Reach out about how I can support scaling your Employee Resource Group (ERG) for more impact or in how I can help share the business case for creating an ERG.
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