Across industries, organisations have made visible progress in attracting women into the workforce, but this has not translated proportionately into leadership representation. According to LinkedIn’s Status of Women in Leadership Report (2025), women account for 41.2% of the global workforce, yet hold only 28.8% of management and senior leadership roles, revealing a persistent gap between participation and progression. The central challenge for organisations today is not only bringing women into the workforce, but converting that participation into sustained leadership advancement.
The leadership gap is not primarily a question of women’s capability or ambition; it is a question of organisational systems. Global research shows that women continue to face barriers in promotion, access to business-critical roles, sponsorship, leadership visibility, and succession pathways. These barriers often emerge at key transition points, particularly at the first promotion to manager, the mid-career stage, and the move into senior operational or enterprise leadership roles. Over time, small disadvantages accumulate, narrowing the pipeline at each successive level and leaving women underrepresented in the positions that most often lead to executive leadership.