Men and women’s leadership chances start to diverge even before motherhood, says LinkedIn VP

According to LinkedIn’s figures, in America, women made up 41.4% of leadership hires in 2022. That number dropped to 40.6% in 2023 and has continued to fall to 40.1% so far this year. 

Likewise, in the U.K. the share of women being hired into leadership roles has dropped to 37.1% this year from 37.8% in 2022—and the same declining trend is happening in France, the Netherlands and Germany, LinkedIn warns. 

“After hitting a peak around 2022 when we had the hiring frenzy that was so acutely associated with Covid, what we’ve seen since then is that the share of women being hired into senior leadership roles globally has not only stalled, but gone backward,” Sue Duke, VP of global public policy at LinkedIn says.

Often, women settling down and having children is blamed as the reason they’re left out of these top jobs—ultimately leading to the prevailing gender pay gap. But actually, she says, the drop-off rate can be seen before women even enter motherhood.

“It happens earlier,” Duke says.

“A great thing about the data that we have is we can pinpoint exactly where men’s and women’s careers start to diverge, and what we see very clearly is that the first point of significant divergence is at that pre-manager level.”

Essentially, the cracks start to appear before twenty-something-year-old men and women even enter management: That’s when you start to see a dip in female senior individual contributors getting promoted or hired into roles that would lead to management—and it has a ripple effect on the number of women available to rise through the ranks. 

“If we have 9% drop off at that stage, what we see then is this pinching and pinching, this seniority slump right the way through, which results in by the time we get to C suite, we only have one in four female leaders at that level,” Duke adds. 

“Ensuring we’re targeting our interventions at that pre-manager level, senior individual contributor, but not yet quite a manager is going to make a big difference.”

Why a lack of mentorship could be to blame 

So why are women failing to make that jump into management—and then subsequently middle management and exec roles?

“They’re not making that jump, for a couple of reasons,” Duke responds. “One is what we’re seeing is that the absence of that mentorship, the absence of that allyship, that an absence of investment in women and their confidence level, their skillset to make sure that they can go and apply and get that manager role. We’re missing that.”

Mentorship not only gives women the confidence to apply for that step up in leadership, but it also forces people in positions of power to connect with their lower-ranking female staffers.

Despite working her way up the ranks at LinkedIn and having previous stints at Google and in the Government, Duke says that she could have used help navigating the career ladder earlier. 

“You’re trying to get to grips with this new world and figure out how to apply your skills, etc. Having somebody early in those phases, that’s something I wish I’d done sooner.” 

“One piece of advice I would give particularly to women and women starting out in their career, is the importance of mentorship, the importance of allyship,” she adds.

“Go out, find somebody who you have that connection with—who has experience and a skill set that you can tap into—and get that as early as possible.” 

What employers can do better

Of course, women shouldn’t have to muster the courage to ask senior leaders to be their mentors or risk never entering management.

Duke stresses that employers need to start launching mentorship programs, adding that such interventions need to specifically focus on women in the pre-manager stage of their careers.

There are some changes the Duke thinks should be made in the hiring process too.

“We need to ensure that the right hiring practices and policies are in place from the very beginning at that stage.”

“There is unconscious bias,” she adds. “Addressing that, putting in place targeted training for interviewers who are interviewing at that level is going to be key and ensuring your hiring infrastructure is balanced.”

“Balance panels on the interview side, balance panels on the candidate side, that is going to be a game changer at that level, and that’s what we need to see companies investing in.”