The reality of women in leadership roles remains one-eyed

I had to stop and read the sentence again.

Then again.

“A new Robert Walters report revealed that more than half (57 per cent) of surveyed men don’t believe women are underrepresented in leadership roles, while only 2 per cent of women agree. The survey included over 2,000 ANZ professionals as part of the recruitment agency’s Women in the Workplace report.”

Wow.

The rest of the Robert Walters data quoted in the article, published yesterday in HR Leader, didn’t get any better.

“The statistics around leadership representation trend in a similar direction: more than half of participating men believe there is strong female representation at a senior level within their organisation, compared with 31 per cent of women.

Accordingly, 28 per cent of women cited a predominantly male-led workplace, while only 13 per cent of men said the same.

While 67 per cent of women cited bias and fewer advancement opportunities as drivers of imbalance, only 28 per cent of men were aligned with this view. Less than half of the female proportion.”

The disconnect between men’s and women’s views on female leadership in the workplace is quite extraordinary.

With 98 per cent of women saying they believe women are underrepresented in leadership roles, and only 43 per cent of men agreeing, the gap is so large that it’s easy to understand why more progress isn’t being made in increasing the number of women leaders in the workplace.

Former RCSA President Sinead Hourigan, speaking in her role as global head of advisory at Robert Walters, said, “The most dangerous barrier to progress is complacency”. She added: “If men believe equality has been achieved while women continue to face barriers, leaders must ask themselves: whose reality are we basing decisions on?”

The report found that, despite the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) pay gap disclosures, transparency alone is insufficient to dismantle structural and cultural barriers without addressing the underlying causes.

As McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2025 report states:

“Structural barriers persist for women—they receive less career support and are given fewer opportunities to rise. Although they are as committed to their careers as men, a meaningful difference remains in how strongly they aspire to take on more senior roles.

However, the data show that women don’t receive the same career support as men, especially at entry and senior levels. Women overall are less likely than men to have a sponsor—and entry-level women stand out for receiving far less sponsorship than any other group of women or men. Even when entry-level women do have a sponsor, they’re promoted at a lower rate than men. Sponsors have a substantial impact on career outcomes. In the past two years, employees with sponsors have been promoted at nearly twice the rate of those without.”

The McKinsey report concludes that, after a few years observing workplace norms and promotion patterns, many women decide that the likelihood of receiving a promotion, combined with the greater demands on their time, is simply not worth the effort.

“Women and men are equally dedicated to their careers and motivated to do their best work, yet women overall have lower aspirations for promotion than men. This may seem at odds with women’s high commitment levels, but the data suggest that even highly motivated women may be discouraged from pursuing a promotion when faced with limited support or competing demands on their time. Without adequate support and balance, even the most motivated women can begin to question whether advancement is possible or worth the cost.”

A close friend of mine, a lawyer, left her partner-track career at one of the country’s biggest law firms more than a decade ago after she decided that all the sacrifices she was making to work the expected long hours weren’t worth it. She took a role with a state government agency, which offered more flexibility and less pressure, and she has remained there to this day.

The Robert Walters report, which surveyed 2000 women in Australia and New Zealand, reaffirms a conclusion from the McKinsey report, which surveyed 10,000 women in the United States.

“..women experience a different workplace than men. Early- and mid-career women are less likely to believe opportunities are fair. Senior-level women stand out for thinking their gender will limit their future opportunities, perhaps because they’ve been in the workforce longer and experienced more headwinds over the course of their careers.”

As I have acknowledged in previous blogs, I was incredibly fortunate to have four women leaders over the first six years of my recruitment career who each believed in me, invested in me, and pushed me forward.

I have no doubt that whatever success I have enjoyed over my 38 years in the recruitment industry would not have been possible without the foundation laid in those first six years by the respective leadership of Kim, Bridget, Eileen, and Bronwyn (as you can see from the 1992 photo, right, I needed all the help I could get).

It seems extraordinary that nearly four decades later, my experience of female leadership still seems the exception rather than the norm in most workplaces.

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