PODCAST: Why Women Still Can’t Get Ahead
Leanin.org’s Alexis Krivkovich and McKinsey & Company’s Eric Kutcher looked at HR data and 34,000 employee surveys from 132 companies to learn why women still struggle to get ahead. They offered several interesting insights.
Although women and men enter companies at equal levels and rates, their paths split. Men are more likely to advance to positions that lead to the c-suite, while women disproportionately end up in roles that don’t. They also found a difference in perception at the top, where HR and corporate leadership say diversity is a priority, but managers in further down the hierarchy, who determine promotions, don’t see it that way.
In addition to implicit, unconscious bias by leadership, they discovered that women are less likely – 30% less likely – to receive feedback, even when they ask for it. Managers reported giving men and women feedback equally, but evidence the presented a different picture.