Spokesperson: Dr Nada Sayarh | Associate. Professor – D. Director ESG at SP Jain School of Global Management. Despite significant progress over the past decade, achieving true parity for women in the workplace remains a distant goal. According to McKinsey’s “Women in the Workplace 2024” report, achieving gender equality may still be nearly 50 years away. Systemic barriers persist, preventing women from reaching senior leadership roles at the same rate as men. To address these challenges, companies must focus on closing pipeline gaps, fixing the broken career ladder and investing in women’s leadership development. Reversing the situation and paving the way for future female leaders takes both understanding the barriers and identifying the most effective drivers of change. The most pervasive barriers that women typically encounter are:

1. Unfair expectations: Women often find themselves needing to outperform male colleagues to prove their worth. They also face the challenge of balancing assertiveness with likeability, a struggle less common for men. Additionally, their decisions and actions are often scrutinized more heavily, adding to the burden of excelling both professionally and domestically.
2. Lack of Access to Networks and Mentors: Women frequently encounter limited access to informal networks, which are crucial for career advancement. They have fewer opportunities for mentorship, especially from senior leaders, and often face reduced visibility for high-profile projects. This can be attributed to the “old boys’ club” phenomenon, where men tend to sponsor and advocate for other men in leadership opportunities.
3. Work-Life Balance Challenges: Balancing professional and personal life is particularly challenging for women leaders due to societal expectations that they are primarily responsible for caregiving and household duties. This was especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, where women had to shoulder these responsibilities at higher rates than men. Limited access to flexible work arrangements and career interruptions due to family-related reasons can further disrupt their career progression.
4. Barriers to Career Advancement Opportunities: Women face numerous barriers to career progression, evidenced by their underrepresentation in leadership roles. Only 8.8% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs, and the “glass ceiling” effect continues to hinder their advancement to top executive positions. The lack of role models and sponsors in senior leadership, along with biases in promotion processes, further exacerbates this issue. One of the most persistent hurdles is unconscious bias, which manifests in various forms, such as gender stereotypes associating leadership qualities with masculine traits. These biases often result in subconscious attitudes about women’s capabilities, preferences for women to conform to specific behaviors, and assumptions that women are less committed or qualified for leadership roles. This significantly slows women’s hiring into entry-level positions and their progression to executive positions compared to their male counterparts.

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While attitudes, behavioural, organizational and cultural barriers may take time to change, there are several proactive steps that women can take to boost their career progress to top management. By focusing on individual growth and leveraging the elements within their control, women can own the process of creating their pathways to success and achieving personal victories. This is especially relevant as companies’ programs are not proving successful in fuelling women’s progress to the C-suite. Also, several are in the process of reducing investments in internal programs meant to develop women’s careers and halting formal mentorship and sponsorship programs. Upskilling through advanced education, such as pursuing a Global MBA, empowers women to break through these barriers and position themselves for leadership roles. An MBA provides not only advanced business knowledge but also critical skills and networks essential for navigating the professional arena. Here’s how pursuing a Global MBA can help:

1.Skill Development for top management: A Global MBA program provides women with critical business and leadership skills, enhancing their ability to excel in various managerial roles and to move into leadership. One key reason why women are not reaching Top managerial position comes from the lack of opportunities in getting high stake assignments that are milestones for eligibility to the C-suite. A Global MBA not only exposes them to C-suite level decision making and projects but also reassures top managers that they are ready for these positions. These include P &L related projects that prepare them for these critical roles.

2.Networking Opportunities: MBA programs provide access to a global network of professionals and alumni, opening doors to mentorship, sponsorship, and career opportunities that might otherwise remain out of reach. By leveraging the MBA network as a third-party connector, women can forge relationships and build bridges to high-status networks that might have been inaccessible otherwise. Third party endorsements are highly effective for women as they open the door for them to be considered based on their skills and competencies and overcoming societal barriers.

3.Credibility and Confidence: Earning an MBA from a reputable institution can enhance a woman’s credibility and boost her confidence and communication skills, making it easier to navigate and break through the glass ceiling. Indeed, women have higher likelihoods to face situations that undermine their expertise and having their judgment questioned. As a result of these microaggressions women find it more challenging to voice their opinion, take risks and flag issues in the workplace. It also provides them with the necessary self-confidence, benchmarks and tools to better negotiate their salary. The gender pay gap persists, especially in leadership roles, where women in senior executive positions earn an average of 70% of what men earn in similar roles.

4.Career Advancement: An MBA can significantly enhance career prospects, accelerating capability building for women and providing them with the qualifications needed for leadership roles and helping them overcome barriers to promotion. Choosing a program that emphasizes not only leadership and business acumen but also cutting-edge technology skills, such as generative AI, is crucial. Mastery of these technological tools not only positions women as strong contenders for executive roles but also challenges outdated stereotypes about women’s proficiency in technology, giving them a distinct advantage in the modern workplace.

While the Global MBA (GMBA) offers women the tools, networks, and skills needed to break barriers in leadership, the journey begins much earlier—at the moment a woman chooses to prioritize her future. Registration to the program itself is a bold, personal victory for self advocacy. It signifies her readiness to commit to the financial and time-intensive demands of the program. For many women, this step requires exceptional leadership within their own lives—mobilizing family, negotiating support from spouses or partners, and organizing their personal and professional responsibilities to carve out the necessary time for study. The ability to advocate for her own growth is the first act of  self-leadership that breaks a substantial barrier to her journey to corporate leadership.

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