Women now make up six out of 10 college graduates and half of the labor force in the United States, but many face bias and other backlash in the workplace, according to a new study by consulting firm McKinsey and advocacy group Lean In. In particular, sexual harassment rates have not improved in five years.
The group’s 10th-anniversary “Women in the Workplace” report shows that while women have made some gains in corporate America, they have not made notable progress on many fronts, from lower rates of early career promotions compared to men to the prevalence of sexual harassment.
The study provides a sobering assessment of the challenges that remain after years of work by women’s advocates, businesses, and the #MeToo movement to improve the workplace for women. At the same time, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives threaten to derail the progress women have made in climbing the career ladder.
“I would call it a mixed scorecard for corporate America,” Rachel Thomas, co-founder and CEO of Lean In, told CBS MoneyWatch. “The fact that commitment to gender and racial diversity has declined is concerning. We need to build on that momentum, and they risk falling behind.”
Recently, major companies such as Ford Motor Company, Lowe’s, and John Deere retreat from diversity In the face of conservative criticism.
A new study finds a growing gap between young men and young women when it comes to prioritizing gender and racial diversity, with only four in 10 men under 30 now supporting such efforts, down from about half of young men in 2019. About seven in 10 young women support prioritizing diversity, the study found, which is about the same as five years ago.
“There is a zeitgeist backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion,” Thomas said.
Sexual harassment is still widespread
Research shows that sexual harassment remains common in American companies, with nearly 40 percent of working women experiencing anything from sexist jokes to lewd comments during their careers.
The study found that women under 30 were just as likely to experience sexual harassment as women over 30, a finding that suggests the problem has not diminished in scale over the years.
“We haven’t seen a change in the frequency with which younger women describe experiences of sexual harassment involving older colleagues,” Alexis Krivkovic, a senior partner at McKinsey, told CBS MoneyWatch. “It’s really concerning.”
Despite the rise of the #MeTo movement in 2017, sexual harassment is still a persistent problem, with many high-profile women speaking out about abuse they’ve experienced at work and demanding changes in their workplaces. But only about half of women today have confidence that their employers will effectively address sexual harassment if they report it, a figure that hasn’t changed much since 2018, the study found.
“Many cases go untreated because women worry that their complaints won’t be dealt with effectively,” says Krivkovic.
“Women remained ambitious”
Despite these obstacles, Krivkovic said women have made progress in entering corporate leadership roles. For example, women now hold 29 percent of C-Suite roles—chief executives, such as CEO or chief financial officer—up from 17 percent in 2015, when the Women in the Workplace report was first released.
“We know that women have maintained their ambition despite all the headwinds over the past decade,” Thomas said.
But Krivkovic added: “When we look under the hood, it becomes clear that such performance is actually fragile.”
First, women are still stumbling on the “broken railing,” or not being promoted from entry-level positions at the same rate as men, the study found. For every 100 men promoted to a management role in 2024, 81 women were promoted, compared to 79 women who received similar promotions in 2018, the study found.
“Young women are most at risk of ageism because they are judged by older managers to be less experienced,” Thomas and Krivkovic said. “Young men are often judged by different standards.”
“We know from social science research that men are promoted based on potential, and women are promoted based on prior experience,” Thomas said.
Companies need to make changes to ensure that women have the same opportunities as men, such as implementing blind resume reviews that don’t reveal a candidate’s gender or identity to managers. But women can also take steps to address the issue themselves, Thomas and Krivkovic said.
“Don’t sit back and wait for things to naturally unfold—your sponsorship, your mentoring network, your expectations of your ambitions, and the opportunities that come your way,” Krivkovic said. “You have to take an active role in all of this.”
