Labor

Study: Companies Losing Women Leaders at Alarming Rates

OCT 18 2022·Updated SEP 4

Story

Above: Olivia White, Senior Partner and Director, McKinsey Global Institute, at Sheraton New York Times Square on Sept. 23, 2025. Image credit: Riccardo Savi/Getty Images/Concordia Annual Summit

The Facts

According to a report released on Tuesday by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org, women leaders were more likely to switch jobs than men in 2021. The movement, dubbed the "Great Breakup," says that while women aren't leaving the workforce, they are leaving their employers to find better opportunities.
Axios
Workforce attrition for men and women had reportedly held steady at around 8% since 2017, but in 2021 attrition for women leaders climbed to 10.5%, the greatest surge in five years.
Fortune
The study also showed that women face promotion challenges, known as the "broken rung." For every 100 men promoted from entry-level positions to managers, only 87 women were promoted. In 2022, 60% of managers are reportedly men, while 40% are women.
MS Now
The closely watched report examined 333 companies across the US and Canada and surveyed more than 40k employees from 55 businesses.
Axios
The shift in attitude by women in the workplace follows the larger cultural movement known as the "Great Resignation." According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, 4.5M workers resigned to pursue better work opportunities.
CNET
The data, the report says, shows that women are just as ambitious as men with their intent to climb the ladder. Black women, more specifically, appear to have increased ambition, as 59% said that they wanted to be top executives compared to 27% of white women.
Business News

Sources Split

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The Spin

Left narrative

Gender shouldn't play a role when assessing someone's leadership capabilities, but unfortunately, it does, as outlined by this latest report. In a move that could end in disaster for many companies, women are rightly standing up and relocating to companies that meet their expectations. Unless businesses focus on fixing the "broken rung," the "Great Breakup" will only grow.

CNBC

Right narrative

Despite popular rhetoric, women in the West are more educated, have access to more opportunities, and enjoy more freedoms than ever before. Yet the commercial enterprise has fed into the lie that, in order to truly be "liberated", women must become slaves to the corporate world — an ironic "feminist" motion that completely disregards the actual needs of women who lean towards work-life balance and traditionally female jobs.