A new report from McKinsey & Company examines the status and progress of women in the American workplace. Data was collected from 276 participating organizations employing more than 10 million people. At these organizations, the researchers surveyed more than 27,000 employees and 270 senior human leaders, who shared insights on their policies and practices.
The report reveals some hard-fought gains at the top, with women’s representation in the C-suite at the highest leel it has ever been. However, with lagging progress in the middle of the pipeline, true parity remains painfully out of reach.
Since 2015, the number of women in the C-suite has increased from 17 to 28 percent, and the representation of women at the vice president and senior vice president levels has also improved significantly. But, for every 100 men promoted from entry-level positions to manager, 87 women were promoted.
‘These hard-earned gains are encouraging yet fragile,” the authors state. “Progress for women at the manager and director levels has grown only three and four percentage points, respectively creating a weak middle in the pipeline for employees who represent the vast majority of women in corporate America.”