The Facts

“Based on four years of data from 462 companies employing almost 20 million people, two things are clear:

Women remain significantly underrepresented, particularly women of color.
Companies need to change the way they hire and promote entry- and manager-level employees to make real progress.”

—Women in the Workplace, McKinsey & Company and Lean In (joint study)

“Companies with women holding at least 30% of leadership roles are 1.4 times more likely to have sustained, profitable growth, and are 1.7 times more likely to have greater leadership strength.”

—DDI World

“A man is 46% more likely than a woman to have a higher-ranking advocate in the office. From a McKinsey report, “at companies where only one in ten senior leaders are women, nearly 50% of men felt women were ‘well represented’ in leadership.”

—AWESOME: Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management and Education

“In fact, advancing women’s equality could add $12 trillion to global growth.”

—“How Technology Is Helping Close the Gender Gap and Empower Women,” by Raya Bidshahri, Singularity Hub

“Women’s share of board seats in S&P 1500 companies increased 7.2 percentage points, or 94 percent, from 1997 to 2009, and their share of top executive positions increased 2.8 percentage points, or 86 percent. The share of companies with female CEOs increased more than sixfold.”

—David A. Matsa and Amalia R. Miller, “Chipping Away at the Glass Ceiling: Gender Spillovers in Corporate Leadership,” American Economic Review

“35% of women in corporate America experience sexual harassment at some point in their careers, from hearing sexist jokes to being touched in an inappropriately sexual way.”

—Women in the Workplace Study, McKinsey & Company and Lean In (joint study)

“43% of the 150 highest-earning public companies in Silicon Valley had zero female CEOs.”

—David A. Bell and Kristine M. Di Bacco, “Gender Diversity in Silicon Valley: A Comparison of Silicon Valley Public Companies and Large Public Companies” (Mountain View, CA: Fenwick & West LLP, 2016)

“Women of color are 39 percent of the nation’s female population and 20 percent of the entire U.S. population, and yet women of color are only 4.7% of executive- or senior-level officials and managers in S&P 500 companies.”

—Julia Carpenter, “Forget the ‘glass ceiling.’ Women of color face a ‘concrete ceiling’,” CNN Money

“Women are much less likely than men to be in leadership positions. In universities, businesses, courts, unions and religious institutions, male leaders outnumber female leaders by wide margins.”

—Barriers and Biases: The Status of Women in Leadership

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“One thing I’ve become used to is having to prove myself constantly, over and over. It’s tiring, and unfortunately it hasn’t changed a whole lot as I’ve become more senior.”

“I walked into a meeting where I was the only woman in a very large room of men. And when I sat down, an older white man from another company turned to me out of nowhere and said, ‘Could you take notes for the meeting?’ Which was a little bit odd because I was the lawyer in the room, the one doing the negotiating.”

“I was in the elevator and pressed the button for the executive office. Someone said to me, ‘Um, no honey. That’s for the executive offices. The interns are going to this floor.’”

“I feel excluded. I feel that there’s a bit of a boy’s club. I don’t even know if people realize it. It can be as simple as men going for coffee and not realizing that the only people they ask happen to be men.”

“As a woman, you’ve got to give 150%. You have to be more prepared, you have to be more articulate, you’ve got to be strong in your compassion, but also not too emotional, not too aggressive.”

“When you’re the only Black woman, you have to excel. You have to always give 100%. It’s sink or swim. In my opinion, I would not be here today if I did not excel beyond the measure.”

“I would say I’ve received a fraction of the opportunities I would have as a white man. The ones that I did receive, I had to fight really hard for. I’ve seen many white men groomed for leadership. They were hand-held through the process by senior leaders. That didn’t mean that they didn’t have to perform, but it did mean that the door was open wide for them and they were given all the resources they needed to be successful. That didn’t happen for me. I had to literally kick the doors open.”