Stalled progress: why gender parity in the workplace remains elusive
Despite decades of effort, new research from McKinsey shows that true workplace equality remains a distant goal
Despite efforts to promote gender equality in corporate America, McKinsey’s 2024 Women in the Workplace report reveals slow and fragile progress toward gender parity, especially for marginalised groups. The research indicates that not only are women’s day to day experiences not much better, or are even worse, than they were nearly a decade ago, but also that the path to gender parity is nearly 50 years away.
This year’s research marks the 10th anniversary of McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report series and collates information from 281 participating organisations that collectively employ more than ten million people. As an anniversary edition, the report analyses data from the past ten years in order to better understand the progress of women’s experiences in the workplace.
Decades of effort, decades to go
Alarmingly the report reveals that women’s experiences at work have not improved. Women remain underrepresented at every stage of the corporate pipeline and continue to face barriers right from the beginning. What’s more, sexual harassment is just as prevalent in today’s workplace as it was five years ago.
Perhaps it is not surprising then, that the next generation of women are even less optimistic for their future. In addition to feeling disadvantaged by their gender or race, younger women are also more likely to experience ageism. Whereas ageism affects older men and women at a similar rate, the research shows that it is far more pronounced for younger women. Performance bias also affects women from advancing in the workplace, and this is more pronounced when they are early into their careers.
A fragile future
The report highlights that the news is not all bad: the last decade has seen important progress for women at every level, but especially in senior leadership. McKinsey’s research over the last decade has shown that companies have taken action, and that this has led to important developments including more women in leadership, better policies for employees and increased efforts to foster inclusion.
Yet, whilst there has been progress in some areas, it is fragile. Too few women – and in particular women of colour – are advancing into management positions. Furthermore, the research shows that even women’s progress in senior leadership is more fragile than it appears. In the C-suite, for example, the primary reason that women’s representation increased was that companies added a staff role and were more likely to hire a woman into this position. Since companies cannot indefinitely add new staff roles, this is not a viable path to parity.
The main takeaway from McKinsey’s 10th anniversary report is that companies should keep going: where progress has begun, this must now be sustained.
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