5 steps employers must take to support the next generation of women leaders

I've talked about increasing the number of women leaders for more than a decade, but I'll admit societal progress hasn't been as rapid or significant as I thought it might be in supporting women leaders.

In 2024, only 10% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women. During the COVID-19 pandemic, global organizations experienced a mass exodus of women from the workforce, and many haven't returned. Add in a fraught geopolitical situation and the rollback of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and the future of women's leadership appears newly uncertain.

"Women still face challenges to their authority and success that are greater than those faced by their male counterparts," says Alice Eagly, PhD, a professor of psychology emerita at Northwestern University in an article for the American Psychological Association.

Eagly has spent her professional life studying women's leadership, and I'm fortunate to know her work well. After hearing her speak many years ago, I asked her if she believed business achievement came easily to a 5'0" woman (i.e. myself). In return, she said, "Well, do you think you have a stellar career?" When I replied that I was happy with how things had gone so far, she told me that I must be extremely competent.

Why did I need to be extremely competent as opposed to garden variety competent? According to Eagly, being a woman and being short in leadership-related situations was a double whammy. And while I didn't necessarily think the men in my professional sphere had lapped me, I had noticed subtle differences in the type of roles and compensation offered over the years.

LinkedIn research shows us that the current leadership gender gap hinges on the first few years of employment. Men are 33% more likely to receive internal promotions than women, so as women accumulate more tenure, they fall further behind. The core question is: what can organizations do to help the next generation of young women advance into leadership roles? The following five steps are a good place to start.

Pay particular attention to talented early-career women

Succession planning is, of course, important for all genders. However, given women's well-documented tendency to lose ground in their early careers, initiatives targeted at them are essential.

First, consider whether you have effective vehicles in place for getting high-potential, early-career women onto the organization's radar. For example, what specifically can managers do to support them? Is there a leadership training program? If so, is there enough internal visibility of such an offering?

What types of coaching and mentoring programs does your organization offer? Besides annual performance reviews, how do talented women receive feedback and guidance on their work and career goals? Are young women privy to stretch assignments and opportunities to acquire valuable transferable skills? Does your organization encourage a culture of sponsorship - in which senior leaders actively seek advancement for junior protegees?

Conducting a cross-functional brainstorm to determine how the organization currently fairs in these areas is a great way to start putting a spotlight on young women employees before they get caught in the seniority gap.

Encourage women to network

In addition to launching in-house affinity groups targeted to women, your organization should support industry-related networking via an annual stipend to join and participate in women's professional associations.

According to 2024 research published in the Human Resource Development Quarterly, being part of a women's professional organization "allowed members to hone their leadership abilities, network with other women, work directly with and observe women leaders, and receive support from others to take on leadership roles."

The study found that active members of women's professional associations are more likely to believe in their leadership capabilities and seek out fresh leadership opportunities.

Combat discrimination

The belief that men in the business world are more competent than women is ingrained and mostly unconscious. In other words, few people in positions of authority intend to hold women back. However, biased hiring and promotion decisions occur nonetheless.

Working mothers face even greater obstacles. A recent Johns Hopkins University article cites a study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. This research reveals that one-third of employers believe that pregnant women and mothers are less motivated to advance professionally than women without children or men at the same level. And worse, more than three-quarters of working mothers have personally encountered workplace discrimination.

McKinsey's 2023 Women in the Workplace report outlines a few simple techniques to reduce unconscious bias. The authors recommend sending reminders before performance evaluations and promotion cycles explaining how common biases can impact reviewers' assessments. They also suggest appointing a "bias monitor" to keep these discussions focused on the core criteria for the job. Note that a human bias monitor can also be useful in evaluating conclusions drawn by potentially biased artificial intelligence programs.

Finally, have the men in your ranks been trained on how to serve as allies to women with whom they work? Do they understand how to spot and neutralize microaggressions? According to a study by Colorado State University, male executives who have received allyship instruction are far more likely to speak up about incidents of gender inequality than men who are not trained in this approach.

Pay women equally

It sounds simple, but despite increased attention to the issue, pay disparities based on gender remain a thorny issue. Now that equal pay regulations have taken center stage, pay equity for women is now a moral and legal imperative.

Organizations can ensure compliance with these new regulations by implementing technology that supports data-driven fair compensation decisions. These tools are designed to make compensation less subjective by providing statistical analyses of existing compensation models, creating benchmarks, and comparing internal and external pay data.

Pay transparency, which refers to openly disclosing the salary range for a given position, is also considered a major factor in the quest for pay equity. Notably, pay transparency initiatives are often most impactful for the employees at the junior level who are most at risk of falling into a seniority chasm before they can achieve their leadership potential.

Track and reward results

McKinsey's report cites the usual hiring, promotions, and attrition metrics as being key outcomes for women's advancement, but also suggests using data analytics to unearth insights into other variables such as participation in career or mentorship programs and sentiment about the employee experience and expectations. The research recommends approaching analysis with an intersectional lens that considers the unique challenges faced by women of color.

The desire for and execution of flexible work is an important metric to follow, for this issue disproportionately affects women's employment. I know of several companies that have seen women's attrition rise significantly in the wake of their return-to-office mandates. Yet per McKinsey, only 30% of organizations are tracking the impact of their return-to-office policies on key DEI outcomes.

As with other DEI-related goals, ongoing and transparent communication of the organization's commitment is vital for women employees to feel supported.

Because managers are on the front lines of the employee experience, providing them with multi-format DEI and bias training, clear policies, and financial incentives for executing on organizational DEI goals can go a long way to fostering cultural change one group at a time.

Clearly, we haven't quite cracked the nut of equal representation of all genders in our leadership circles. But, at a time when a looming demographic cliff and related labor shortages are casting a threatening shadow, putting these pieces in place will facilitate steady progress in elevating women.

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