Fewer women then men want promotions

From return-to-office mandates, anxiety about AI taking (or reshaping) jobs, and a highly competitive atmosphere for recent graduates and other job seekers, 2025 has been a year of change. It’s also been a big year of change for women in the workplace, with a record number exiting the workforce. And, according to a new report, women are now also less inclined to seek promotions.

LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co. just released their 2025 Women in the Workplace report based on a survey of 124 organizations employing around 3 million people. The survey research found that while companies overwhelmingly say that diversity (67%) and inclusion (84%) are top priorities, just over half (54%) of companies say the same about women’s career advancement. For women of color, only 46% of companies value advancement. And while employers broadly say they value diversity, equity, and inclusion, one in six have reduced DEI budgets.

The survey also revealed another worrisome trend. Across categories, women say they want to be promoted at lower rates than men. Only 69% of entry-level women want a promotion compared with 80% of entry-level men. Likewise, 84% of senior-level women want to be promoted, while 92% of senior-level men do. And overall, 80% of women overall say they want to be promoted to the next level, compared to 86% of men.

Interestingly, it doesn’t start out that way. Young women are extremely ambitious. In fact, women under 30 are more interested in being promoted than young men, but after 40, only 52% of entry-level women want to advance, while 71% of men still do.

According to the report, the statistic seems tied to how much support men and women are receiving, which is far from equal. Only 31% of entry-level women have had a sponsor compared to 45% of men, which the report says can nearly double promotion rates. Likewise, “when entry- and senior-level women and men have sponsors and receive similar levels of support from managers and more senior colleagues, they are equally enthusiastic about getting promoted to the next level,” the report explains.

But there’s another undeniable obstacle that women seem to disproportionately face, which is likely to impact their desire to be promoted: families. Almost 25% of both entry and senior level women who are not interested in promotions say it’s due to their personal obligations which would make more responsibility at work too challenging. However just 15% of men said the same.

Unfortunately, for women, findings follow a bounty of previous research that women still do more housework and child-rearing than men. Per the McKinsey report, “In 2024, women with partners were more than three times as likely as men with partners to be responsible for all or most housework.” Therefore, it’s not all that surprising that women who are disproportionately weighed down at home may not be as hungry for even more obligations on the job, too.