We read it for you: A worrying decline in commitment to women’s advancement
Every month, important reports related to DEI are published and too often end up gathering dust on a shelf. Too long or too technical, but full of crucial information! Every month, URelles delves into these complex documents to extract the essentials and offer a digestible, jargon-free version.
Priorities scaled back
In 2025, only one in two American companies still considers women’s career advancement a priority. This decline is part of a trend that has been observed for several years and affects women of color even more severely. Some organizations, up to 20% of them, and 30% when it comes to women of color, simply no longer make it a priority at all.
A “gap in ambition” that is not individual, but structural
For the first time, the report observes a notable gap: women express less interest than men in promotion. However, this gap disappears completely when women receive the same level of career support (mentoring, sponsorship, and managerial support) as their male colleagues. The problem is therefore not a lack of ambition, but a lack of favorable conditions.
Sponsorship remains a key lever… but is still too inaccessible
Fewer women than men benefit from having a sponsor, even though the impact is significant. Employees with a sponsor are promoted almost twice as often: 65% have been promoted in the last two years, compared to only 35% of those without a sponsor. However, only 58% of companies have a formal sponsorship program, and only one in two women say they have a sponsor.
The “broken ring” persists from the start of his career
For the eleventh consecutive year, women remain underrepresented at every level of the hierarchy. One of the major obstacles arises at the start of their careers: women are less likely than men to be promoted from entry-level positions, and they continue to encounter the notorious “broken ring” when making the first transition to a management position. As a result, only about one-third of entry-level managers are women, which significantly reduces their prospects for future advancement.
Growing inequalities at the intersection of identities
Asian, Black, and women with disabilities face specific and cumulative barriers. Asian women, particularly those in mid-career, receive less support from their managers and senior leadership, often due to persistent stereotypes about assertiveness—a double bind where speaking up or staying quiet can both hinder advancement.
Black women in leadership positions experience particularly high levels of burnout and job insecurity: nearly 80% of them say they frequently feel exhausted.
Women with disabilities are also more likely to fear that their personal characteristics will limit their opportunities for advancement, a concern that is largely confirmed by the biases observed in the workplace.
Domestic responsibilities continue to influence career paths
Personal responsibilities remain a significant barrier to women’s advancement. Nearly a quarter of women, both at the beginning and end of their careers, say they turn down promotions because of personal obligations, compared to only 15% of men. These differences can be explained in particular by the continuing highly unequal distribution of domestic work.
Women already in leadership positions are more likely to perceive the highest roles as inaccessible, exhausting, and incompatible with an acceptable quality of life. They also report higher rates of burnout than their male colleagues and express greater concern about the impact of their gender on their advancement.
The stigma associated with flexibility also remains one of the major obstacles to women’s advancement. When women use flexible working arrangements, their commitment and productivity are more often questioned, while those of men are assumed to be intact.
A worrying gap between perception and reality among leaders
While only one in three senior managers is a woman, nearly 80% of men in these positions believe that women are already well represented. This disconnect contributes to slowing down concrete actions in favor of equality.
What really works in high-performing organizations
Companies with better representation of women have clear and structured practices in common:
→ Consider gender diversity as an organizational priority
→ Use objective criteria for evaluation and promotion
→ Train managers about biases and put mechanisms in place to identify them.
For example, a Stanford study shows that introducing clear evaluation criteria reduced subjective comments in women’s performance reviews from 14% to 1%.
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