Gender diversity and representation in the workplace has been the topic of discussion for decades. Also, while many organisations have made public commitments, the progress towards meeting them has been disappointingly slow. 

Why do businesses struggle to make significant advancements in gender representation, and why do many of them fall short of their publicly shared targets? 

The current state

Before delving into the reasons for the lack of progress, let us establish the current state of gender representation in the workplace.

Despite numerous initiatives and corporate commitments, recent data reveals that significant disparities persist:

• Leadership positions: Women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles. According to a McKinsey report 2023, women make up only 36% of senior managers, declining to just 28% of C-suite roles.
• Gender pay gap: In many industries and regions, gender pay gap remains a pressing issue. Women, on average, earn less than their male counterparts for the same work. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023 estimated that it will take 131 years to close the gender gap worldwide.
• Boardrooms: Despite increasing attention to board diversity, women’s representation on corporate boards remains inadequate. According to the latest Altrata report, Global Gender Diversity 2023, women account for only 30% of corporate boards across 20 major economies.
• Pipeline challenges: The pipeline to leadership positions often faces leaks due to issues such as a lack of mentorship and opportunities for women, as well as implicit bias in hiring and promotion decisions.

Then why is progress still so slow?

The seven barriers

The seven barriers that need to be overcome to achieve real progress are all about data and targets, commitment and strategic planning for smart interventions.

1. Lack of data analysis at the start

Lack of data analysis to fully investigate the root cause of low representation often turns out to be the key issue. A good strategic plan should start with an in-depth analysis of where the organisation currently is. Without getting to the root cause of the issue, any interventions are likely to fail. 

For instance, we’ve been working with a global food company that aimed to increase the representation of women in leadership roles. Initially, an analysis of their data indicated that low representation was primarily attributed to the limited number of women hired at senior levels and the significantly higher attrition rates among women compared to men. Consequently, they set realistic targets for both areas. However, a year later, even though they successfully met their hiring targets, their representation rates remained stagnant due to persistently high attrition rates among women. The company came to realise that they lacked insights into the reasons why more women were leaving the organisation compared to their male counterparts. Without this understanding, they struggled to implement effective interventions to address the issue.

2. Reluctance to set targets

Numerous global companies have set and made public representation targets for women in leadership, some by choice and others through external requirements.

However, many organisations remain nervous about setting and making public targets. They worry about the optics, whether it’s the transparency of how they are currently doing, or the fear of not being able to meet them. They struggle with understanding how to set targets, how to sensitively communicate them internally, and how to ensure that the targets drive the right types of behaviours and initiative. 

As tricky as target-setting may seem, without targets, it is very difficult to make significant progress.  

In our experience, target-setting acts as a powerful driver of change. The Asian regional team of a large global real estate client, with only 24% women in leadership, set the stretching target of 33%, to be achieved in just four years. This drove a very focused intervention of a Women in Leadership sponsorship programme which helped an increase of 1.4% within the first  year.  

3. Lack of strategic planning

Another primary reason for the slow progress in achieving gender representation targets is the absence of comprehensive and strategic planning. Those companies who do set targets, often do so without clear roadmaps, and they fail to integrate these goals into their overall business strategies. Without a well-thought-out plan, it becomes challenging to allocate resources effectively, measure progress, and make necessary adjustments.

In no other part of the business world would leaders set targets, share these publicly, and then just hope that this will drive change.

 4. Lack of evidence-based interventions

It’s tempting to run one-off events or short trainings to tick the box. Many businesses resort to superficial, one-size-fits-all solutions that fail to address their specific challenges and culture.

To effect real change, organisations must resort to evidence-based interventions that have been shown to work.

There are many well-evidenced solutions that have been shown to drive real change. These are rarely quick fixes. To get change requires change – change from everyone, not just the women. Interventions that focus on changing systems or processes, such as how we hire and promote. Unfortunately, these are often put aside as too complicated or expensive to implement.

5. Focus on fixing the women rather than changing the system

Too often, we see organisations’ initiatives to shift the representation of women focused on the women themselves. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that if women are struggling to progress in the workplace then there must be something wrong with them, rather than the system they operate within.

This leads to women-only ‘leadership’ programs, designed to help women build skills it is assumed they lack.

This is obviously problematic.

First, there is rarely any data that shows women are underperforming in their roles versus men. Performance bias leads us to want to see more evidence that a woman is ready for a senior role versus her male counterpart. This is because our mental model of what it is to be a leader is male, which leads to men being promoted on potential and women on performance.

Second, if women do indeed lack leadership skills, then these skills are generic and do not require specific programs – there is no such thing as women’s leadership skills vs male leadership skills.

Instead of focusing on ‘fixing’ women and building generic leadership skills, organisations should be identifying the unintended barriers that are holding women back, and mitigate these. They can level the playing field by ensuring women have the same access to networks, sponsorship and stretch assignments. They can also focus on where unconscious bias shows up in their process and decision-making and how they can redesign their systems to eradicate this. 

6. Insufficient investments

Another key factor contributing to the struggle for gender representation progress is the insufficient allocation of resources. Achieving diversity and inclusion goals requires investments in programs, training, mentorship initiatives, and infrastructure changes. Companies that do not commit adequate financial and human resources to these efforts are unlikely to see substantial improvements.

Too often, we see interventions that rely on un-funded volunteer networks such as employee resource groups or one-off feel-good events that raise awareness but don’t drive change. The task of driving change is often left to over-stretched HR professionals without a dedicated headcount to bring focus and drive the change. 

7. Lack of accountability

Finally, without accountability, gender representation targets can remain empty promises. Organisations need to establish clear accountability mechanisms, measure progress, and hold leaders and employees responsible for achieving diversity goals.

The best example we came across was a global consumer goods company that began measuring and reporting on the number of women being promoted by their top 100 leaders. Similar to sharing baseball players’ batting averages, they showed the hiring decisions of these managers over a 10-year period and then continued to measure and report these publicly every year. This transparency drove accountability and delivered dramatic change very quickly. 

To drive meaningful change

There are more diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives than ever before, from focused recruitment efforts to unconscious bias training or individual development programs for women, which often include mentoring, sponsorship, and coaching. With all this activity, it’s easy to assume progress is being made. But none of these efforts will guarantee substantial change and women reaching management positions. To drive meaningful change, organisations must adopt a holistic approach with

• Strategic plans: Companies should create detailed and actionable strategies that align gender diversity goals with their overall business objectives.
• Adequate resources: Investments in diversity and inclusion programs, sponsorship initiatives, and structural changes are necessary to make progress.
• Evidence-based interventions: Organizations should rely on research-backed interventions tailored to their specific challenges and culture.
• Established accountability: Clear accountability mechanisms, performance metrics, and consequences for non-compliance are essential to ensure that gender representation targets are met.

By addressing the underlying issues and implementing these essential strategies, businesses can finally break free from the shackles of slow progress and work toward a future where gender representation targets are not just aspirational but achievable realities.