Women now make up nearly 6 in 10 college graduates and half the labor force in the U.S. Yet many still face bias and other problems in the workplace, including rates of sexual harassment that haven’t declined in five years, according to a new study from consulting firm McKinsey and advocacy group Lean In.
The organizations’ “Women in the Workplace” report, now in its 10th year, finds that while women in the corporate world in America have made some progress, there has also been a surprising lack of progress on a number of fronts, including early career promotion rates that still lag behind those of men and widespread sexual harassment.
The research offers a sobering assessment of the challenges that remain after years of efforts by women’s activists, corporations, and the #MeToo movement to improve the workplace for women. At the same time, there has been a recent push against diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives threaten the progress women make in the labor market.
“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 there’s been a decline in commitment to gender and racial diversity is concerning — we need to [corporations] “If they don’t join the momentum, they risk taking a step backwards.”
Recently, major companies such as Ford Motor, Lowe’s and John Deere withdrawn from diversity despite conservative criticism.
The new research found a growing gap between young men and young women when it comes to prioritizing gender and racial diversity. Only 4 in 10 men under 30 currently support these efforts, up from half in 2019. About 7 in 10 young women support prioritizing diversity, little changed from five years ago, the research found.
“There is a backlash against diversity, equality and inclusion today,” Thomas said.
Sexual harassment remains widespread
The findings also show that sexual harassment is still prevalent in the American corporate world, with about 40 percent of working women experiencing such treatment during their careers, ranging from sexist jokes to obscene remarks, the study found.
Women under 30 are just as likely to experience sexual harassment as women over 30, a finding that suggests the problem has not diminished in recent years, the study found.
“We’re not seeing any movement among young women in how often they describe experiences of sexual harassment relative to their older peers,” Alexis Krivkovich, a senior partner at McKinsey, told CBS MoneyWatch. “It’s incredibly troubling.”
Sexual harassment remains persistent despite the rise of the #MeTo movement in 2017, which saw a number of high-profile women come forward to reveal abuse they had endured at work and demand changes in the workplace. Yet only about half of women today say they trust their employers to effectively deal with harassment if they reported it, little changed from 2018, the study noted.
“The fact that women are so concerned that if they reported it it wouldn’t be dealt with effectively probably leads to some incidents going unrecorded,” Krivkovich said.
“Women have remained ambitious”
Despite these obstacles, women have made gains in entering corporate leadership roles, Krivkovich said. For example, women now hold 29% of C-suite positions, or top roles such as CEO or CFO, up from 17% in 2015, when the Women in the Workplace report debuted.
“We know that women have remained ambitious over the past decade, despite all the headwinds,” said Thomas.
But, Krivkovich adds, “if we dig deeper into the developments, it is clear that those gains are very fragile.”
For one, women are still tripping up the “broken rung,” or failing to get promoted in their entry-level roles, at the same rate as men, the study found. For every 100 men promoted to a managerial role in 2024, 81 women were promoted — little changed from the 79 women who received a similar promotion in 2018, the study found.
According to Thomas and Krivkovich, young women are most at risk of being victims of age discrimination. Older managers are prejudiced against them because they are seen as people with little experience. Young men, on the other hand, are often judged by a different standard.
“We know from social science research that we promote men based on potential and women based on previous experience,” Thomas said.
While companies need to make changes to ensure women have the same opportunities as men, such as implementing blind resume reviews that hide the gender or identity of applicants from managers, women can also take steps themselves, Thomas and Krivkovich say.
“Don’t sit back and wait for things to unfold organically in terms of your sponsorship, your mentor network, the assumption of your ambition and the opportunities that come your way,” Krivkovich said. “All of those things require you to take a proactive role.”
