Women in the Workplace 2024 study shows gender parity is still a long way off

Much progress is still required for advancing gender equality in the workplace. Women seek to excel in their careers, yet many internal and external barriers to success still prevail. Solutions to these issues could lie in data. Collecting and analyzing gender data helps identify inequalities and enables companies to make evidence-based decisions to improve the working lives of women. 

Vital data surrounding women in the workplace is gathered annually by McKinsey & Company in partnership with Lean In via the Women in the Workplace study. The report provides an intersectional look at the specific biases and barriers faced by Asian, Black, Latina, and LGBTQ+ women and women with disabilities. 

Now in its tenth year, it is the largest comprehensive study of women in corporate America and Canada. The study collected information from 276 participating organizations employing more than ten million people. More than 27,000 employees and 270 senior HR leaders shared insights on their policies and practices.

McKinsey & Company and Lean In have published this report annually to provide companies with the information they need to advance women and improve gender diversity. Over the last 10 years, more than 1,000 companies have participated in the study and over 480,000 people have been surveyed on their workplace experiences. For their 10th anniversary report, McKinsey & Company and Lean In collected information from 281 participating organizations employing over 10 million people, surveyed more than 15,000 employees, and conducted interviews with people of diverse identities, including women of color, LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities.

The Women in the Workplace 2024 study also analyzed data from the past decade to better understand progress, decline, and stagnation in women’s representation and experiences.

The 2024 study reveals that over the last decade, companies have invested more energy in women’s advancement, but the fragility of progress in the pipeline points to the need to do more. The study shows that deep, systemic change, which requires reshaping people’s mindsets and behaviors, is hard and doesn’t follow a linear path. According to Women in the Workplace, the next phase of change will require even more tenacity, creativity, and optimism, and that starts with rekindling the commitment to diversity and fairness. For senior leaders, it means continuing to champion this important work and challenging themselves and their organization to do better. For most companies, this will require putting more of the right practices in place. 

"Taken altogether, the scorecard for corporate America is mixed, but with enough bright spots to believe many organizations have momentum. We would be cautiously optimistic about the future, if it weren’t for one glaring finding in this year’s study: company commitment to diversity is declining. At a moment when companies should be doubling down on their efforts, there are early signs they are pulling back. As we look ahead to the next 10 years of women in the workplace, our ask of companies is simple: keep going. Over the last decade, women have remained ambitious and committed to their jobs. Now, we need companies to stay ambitious and committed to the important work they’ve started. We believe corporate America can do better, and we know women deserve better," stated Lean In.

A key headline fact

At the current pace of progress, it will take 22 years to reach parity in corporate America for white women—and more than twice as long for women of color—and that assumes companies can translate their somewhat precarious momentum into more substantial and sustainable gains.

So let's take a closer look at how women have progressed over the last decade.

Companies still have important work to do

Companies have made real progress, but the culture of work lags behind

Over the past decade, companies have taken real steps to advance women and make the workplace more equitable. They have put more practices in place to de-bias hiring and performance reviews. They have prioritized inclusion with managers and invested more heavily in training employees to recognize bias and practice allyship. Flexibility - a top priority for most employees - has become the norm in many companies. And perhaps most critically, far more companies now offer support to parents, caregivers, and employees facing health issues. Yet company efforts to activate employees - who have a critical role to play in changing the culture of work - sadly have not necessarily translated into action. Employees are not markedly more likely to recognize bias against women or act as allies to women of color. And all this is occurring against the backdrop of waning company commitment to gender and racial diversity.

Key Findings

There are some very insightful key findings in the 2024 Women in the Workplace study:

• Companies are nearly 2x as likely to send bias reminders before reviews as they were six years ago.
• Half of companies now offer support for caregivers of sick and elderly adults - and 1 in 3 offer compassionate leave.
• Men are 2x as likely to say their gender will hurt their chances to advance as they were in 2016.

Women’s experiences have not necessarily improved

Women’s day-to-day experiences largely mirror those of a decade ago.

Despite an increase in women’s representation and expanded company efforts, the workplace has not gotten better for women.

Women are far more likely than men to deal with comments and actions that undermine their skills and expertise. For example, women are almost twice as likely as men to be mistaken for being more junior than they are. On top of this, women of color continue to deal with more demeaning interactions, such as hearing others express surprise at their language skills, which can erode their sense of belonging and make it harder to bring their whole selves to work.

Amid these challenges, women remain highly ambitious - and just as ambitious as men.

Key Findings:

• More than 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ women feel like they can't talk about their personal lives at work.
• Young women are 2x as likely as young men to cite their age as a source of unwanted attention at work.
• Less than half of Latinas and Black women say their manager shows interest in their career advancement.

Women’s experiences have by and large not improved

Men are more optimistic about progress for women—at work and at home.

Despite an increase in women’s representation and expanded company efforts, the workplace has not gotten better for women.

Women are far more likely than men to deal with comments and actions that undermine their skills and expertise. For example, women are almost twice as likely as men to be mistaken for being more junior than they are. On top of this, women of color continue to deal with more demeaning interactions, such as hearing others express surprise at their language skills, which can erode their sense of belonging and make it harder to bring their whole selves to work.

Key Findings:

• Amid these challenges, women remain highly ambitious - and just as ambitious as men.
• More than 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ women feel like they can't talk about their personal lives at work.
• Young women are 2x as likely as young men to cite their age as a source of unwanted attention at work.
• Less than half of Latinas and Black women say their manager shows interest in their career advancement.

Challenge barriers to women's career success

Do you know that Lean In's 50 Ways to Fight Bias helps companies combat bias in hiring and promotions and empowers employees to challenge bias when they see it?

The card-based activity highlights 50 specific examples of gender bias in the workplace and offers research-backed recommendations for what to do.