Women in the Workplace 2024

The 10th Anniversary Report

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There has been real progress in the last decade—but it's surprisingly fragile

Over the past decade, there have been important gains for women at every level of the corporate pipeline, particularly in senior leadership. Almost 30% of C-suite leaders are now women.

However, the pipeline is not as healthy as the numbers suggest. At the beginning, too few women—and especially women of color—are advancing into management positions. And the gains in the C-suite will be nearly impossible to replicate. At the current rate of progress, it will take almost 50 years to reach parity for all women in corporate America—and that assumes companies can find a path to more sustainable gains.

The report also shows that companies have put more policies in place to support employees and have increased their efforts to foster inclusion. However, company initiatives to activate employees–who have a critical role to play in changing the culture of work—have not translated into action. Likely as a result, the workplace has not gotten better for women: in fact, their day-to-day interactions look largely like they did several years ago.

All of this is against a backdrop of companies’ declining commitment to diversity. At a moment when companies should be doubling down on their efforts, there are early signs they are pulling back.

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. This year’s report provides a roadmap.

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“We’re in a moment for women, for people with traditionally marginalized identities, where we have settled for small, incremental steps and called them progress instead of the large, overarching wholesale changes that we need to make.”
—Black woman, senior manager, 2022

tenth year

Women in the Workplace 2024

Women in the Workplace is the largest study on the state of women in corporate America. Based on a decade of data from more than 1,000 companies and over 480,000 people surveyed, this year’s 10th anniversary report features:

  • A detailed overview of women’s progress across the corporate pipeline in the last 10 years
  • A view of women’s experiences over time: despite persistent barriers, women remain highly ambitious—and just as ambitious as men
  • A data-driven look at the practices that are common in top-performing companies and practical recommendations for how companies can expand their playbook
Read the full report

“There's definitely a lot of times where I am the only woman in the room, and there's a feeling of pressure to fit in with the men.”
—White woman, entry-level

FOR COMPANIES

TOOLS TO DRIVE CHANGE

Lean In runs programs to support women leaders and improve the culture of work—and they’re available at no cost, because we believe every company should have the tools to build an equitable workplace. Lean In Circles combines a world-class leadership curriculum with the power of women coming together to learn new skills and support one another. 50 Ways to Fight Bias takes the guesswork out of identifying and challenging the biases women face with specific, research-based recommendations for what to say and do. Allyship at Work focuses on practical steps managers and employees can take to show up as allies and create an inclusive workplace culture. Find out why thousands of organizations including GSK, SurveyMonkey, and Walmart are using our programs and how you can bring them to your company at leanin.org/partner.

McKinsey & Company has made a commitment to researching and building diverse leadership, as well as inclusive and equitable work environments. We have a track record of client service to institutions working to modernize their talent and business processes as well as cultures to support these aims. McKinsey offers award-winning programs to equip leaders with the network, capabilities, and mindsets needed to achieve their goals. Our Connected Leaders Academy has enrolled 82,000 leaders. This program—offered at no cost and which includes customized content relevant to Black, Hispanic and Latino, and Asian leaders—focuses on early professionals, midcareer managers, and senior executives. Our DEI Maturity Assessment has provided 250+ clients a comprehensive framework to assess and drive their DEI strategy. Inclusion assessment has been used by 100+ clients to assess employee perspectives on how effectively leaders, peers and systems support inclusion in the workplace. We also offer an Inclusion Incubator program aimed at fostering meaningful inclusive leadership behaviors. Visit mckinsey.com to explore McKinsey’s client service, research, and insights on DEI.

ABOUT THE STUDY

Women in the Workplace is the largest study on the state of women in corporate America. For this 10th anniversary report, we analyzed data from the past decade to better understand progress, decline, and stagnation in women’s representation and experiences. Over the last 10 years, more than 1,000 companies have participated in the study and over 480,000 people were surveyed on their workplace experiences. In 2024, we 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. In 2015, LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company launched the annual study to give companies insights and tools to advance gender diversity in the workplace.

LeanIn.Org report authors and contributors:
Becca Bernstein, Hayley Brown, Amber Burton, Gina Cardazone, Deb Chong, Marianne Cooper, Brittany Cornejo, Katie DiClemente, Briana Edwards, Caroline Fairchild, Keela Fett, Priya Fielding-Singh, Madelyn Flores, Archana Gilravi, Sammy Goldstein, Ryan Hutson, Thamara Jean, Lizbeth Kim, Ellen Konar, Julia Kung, Lauren Lamorena, Sidney Lee, Brandon McCormick, Nancy Moreno, Mary Noble-Tolla, Nikki Pawsey, Pearl Plotkin, Christine Quintana, Sara Radjenovic, Chrissy Ramkarran, Emma Macan Roberts, Roz Samimi, Emma Spitzer, Mackenzie Stasko, Taylor Steinbeck, Shelley Ong Teshima, Rachel Thomas, Nikki Tucker, Meghan Olivia Warner, Emma Justine Williams-Baron, Jemma York, Stephanie Zibell

McKinsey & Company report authors and contributors:
David Akopyan, Elizabeth Alarcon, Kimberly Beals, Rowan Benecke, Zoha Bharwani, Taylor Burns, Heather Byer, Thea Castañeda, Alysha de Souza, Zakiyya Ellington, Harry Feng, Emily Field, Robyn Freeman, Gianni Galasso, Jenn Gao, Maria Gutierrez, Savannah Jackson Howell, Nil Karahasanoglu, Alexis Krivkovich, Logan Krohn, Sandra Kügele, Sophia Lam, Michelle M. Lee, Steven Lee, Nina Li, Robin Lore, Polina Mamoshina, Megan McConnell, Abena Mensah, Kathryn Moran, Margret-Ann Natsis, Narmeen Noorullah, Progya Parmita, Jane Qu, Stephanie Rank, Charmaine Rice, Diane Rice, Nicole Robinson, Natasha Rosa, Akaash Sanyal, Daniella Seiler, Niraj Shah, Katherine Shi, Saloni Singhvi, Hannah Smith, Haley Tighe, Daniel Verost, Sadhvika Viswanath, Robert Woodington, Katie Xie, Laeticia Yang, Lareina Yee, Stephanie Yeh, Tatiana Zamecnik, Melody Zhang, Daisy Ziruo Zhou

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org would like to thank the 281 companies and more than 15,000 employees who participated in this year’s study. By sharing their information and insights, they’ve given us new visibility into the state of women in the workplace and the steps companies can take to achieve parity for all women.

We appreciate the continued help of Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), The Equity Collaborative, Expanding Equity, PayTech Women, and Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF) in convening participants in their respective industries.

We would like to thank Qualtrics and IntelliSurvey for their help in conducting the surveys for this study and Getty Images for providing the photography from the Lean In Collection used in this report and website.