Organizations have spent years investing in diversity initiatives, leadership development, and inclusive hiring. Yet progress at the top remains stubbornly slow. Women continue to be underrepresented in executive leadership despite overwhelming evidence that diverse leadership teams improve innovation, decision-making, and business performance.
The question facing organizations today is no longer whether they can attract talented women. It is why so many highly capable leaders disappear from the executive pipeline before reaching the C-suite.
Our Making The Invisible Visible report sought to answer that question. Based on more than 160 in-depth interviews with senior women executives across industries and a survey of more than 300 leaders, the research finds that the greatest barriers to advancement are often the least visible. Rather than overt discrimination or a lack of qualified candidates, progress is slowed by leadership norms, promotion systems, relationship dynamics, and unconscious biases that unintentionally favor traditional pathways to leadership.
Why progress on women in leadership has stalled
Many organizations have strengthened hiring practices, leadership development, and inclusion programs, yet women still hold only about one in four executive leadership positions. The report suggests that one reason is the increasing subjectivity of leadership assessments as careers progress.
Early in a career, advancement is largely based on functional capability, technical expertise, and individual execution. At more senior levels, however, organizations increasingly evaluate leadership skills, influence, and potential. These qualities are more subjective to assess, creating greater opportunity for unconscious and implicit bias to influence who advances into executive leadership.
The research also identifies what it describes as a structural misalignment between how men and women view effective leadership. Combined with the subjectivity of leadership assessments, that misalignment creates invisible barriers that can slow women's progression into senior roles.
Four barriers preventing women from reaching senior leadership
The research identified four recurring barriers that organizations often unintentionally overlook.
Traditional leadership norms can disadvantage women leaders
When survey participants were asked which characteristics define effective leadership, confidence was the only leadership trait that both men and women consistently ranked among the most important. Beyond that, perceptions differed. Women placed greater emphasis on collaboration and empowering teams, while men more often identified directness and decisiveness as defining leadership characteristics.
The report suggests this difference matters because leadership candidates are often evaluated against existing leadership norms. Women also reported being less likely than men to see their own leadership style reflected in the dominant leadership style within their organizations.
Performance alone doesn't lead to executive leadership
Strong performance is essential, but the research suggests that performance alone rarely determines who reaches executive leadership.
Many women interviewed described focusing early in their careers on delivering results, assuming that strong performance would naturally lead to advancement. As careers progress, however, leadership appointments become increasingly influenced by relationships, trust, and visibility across the organization.
Trust is built not only through demonstrated competence and integrity but also through affinity — the connections developed as people build relationships over time. Those relationships become an important part of leadership progression, making visibility and organizational networks increasingly important alongside results.
Qualified women are unintentionally left on the sidelines
The research also found that many qualified women are overlooked for opportunities that broaden executive experience.
Women are often less likely to advocate for themselves or put themselves forward for stretch assignments. At the same time, organizations may make assumptions about women's willingness to take on demanding roles or additional responsibilities without explicitly asking about their aspirations.
The report also highlights differences in how men and women assess readiness for new opportunities. Women are more likely to wait until they believe they meet all of a role's qualifications before pursuing it, while men are more likely to pursue opportunities without meeting every requirement. Over time, these patterns can contribute to women taking longer to reach senior leadership positions.
Implicit biases and microaggressions affect women in leadership
Many women interviewed described regularly experiencing implicit bias and workplace microaggressions.
Examples included having ideas attributed to others, being interrupted during meetings, receiving less constructive feedback, or finding that behaviors viewed positively in male leaders were interpreted differently when demonstrated by women.
While often unintentional, these experiences require women to devote energy to adapting their communication style and navigating workplace expectations. Over time this can become exhausting and contributes to some talented leaders leaving the leadership pipeline.
Sponsorship is critical to advancing women into leadership
Among the clearest findings in the research was the importance of sponsorship.
Nearly every senior woman interviewed identified at least one sponsor as playing a critical role in her career progression. Unlike mentors, sponsors actively advocate for talent, use their credibility to create opportunities, and help individuals gain the breadth of experience needed for executive leadership.
There are several ways sponsorship helps level the playing field. Sponsors encourage women to pursue roles they might not otherwise consider, broaden access to influential networks, increase visibility across the organization, and help navigate the unwritten expectations that often accompany senior leadership.
Because sponsorship often develops through trusted relationships, it does not occur evenly across organizations. The report argues that organizations should become more intentional about sponsorship by encouraging senior leaders to actively sponsor high-potential women rather than relying solely on informal relationships to develop naturally.
How inclusive leadership drives women's advancement
The organizations making the greatest progress recognize that inclusion is not a separate initiative but a leadership capability.
Accelerating progress requires leadership teams to become more intentional about how they define leadership, assess potential, develop future executives, and sponsor talent. Creating more diverse executive teams depends not only on attracting talented women but also on ensuring they receive the experiences, visibility, and advocacy needed to progress into senior leadership.
Ultimately, organizations have an opportunity to make the invisible barriers affecting women's advancement visible. By addressing those barriers directly, leaders can strengthen leadership development, broaden the pool of future executives, and build organizations that are better equipped for the future.