Having made significant progress in recent years, women are starting to see their progress up the corporate ladder stalled by a still very apparent glass ceiling, new LinkedIn research shows.
The social media platform found that the proportion of women hired into senior positions in the UK rose from 31.6% in 2016 to 37.8% in 2022.
However, the upward momentum has stalled in the past two years. In 2024, the proportion of women hired into leadership positions fell to 37.1%.
Ireland is the only European country ranked by LinkedIn where this share has increased in the past year. But globally, the trend over the past few years has been downward.
This suggests that easy wins in workplace diversity have been achieved, and parity will require either minor gains or a major workplace revolution. It also highlights the harsh reality women face during economic downturns.
“LinkedIn’s data shows that the little progress made in recent years in women in leadership roles is being reversed as women pay the price for a cooling economy,” said Sue Duke, LinkedIn’s vice president of global public policy and economics.
“The result? Women’s representation at senior level has increased by less than 1% in six years.”
There are also long-term barriers that hinder a woman’s progress in her career, and motherhood is a major culprit.
These barriers have proven difficult to completely break down. Indeed, they are so common that Gen Z women are unlikely to close the gender pay gap before they retire.
“Gender pay parity remains out of sight for a 21-year-old woman entering the workforce today, and analysis shows it will take more than 45 years to close the UK gender pay gap,” authors of a June PwC report on Wrote the wage gap.
AI transformation
However, LinkedIn data suggests there is hope for women in the artificial intelligence revolution, an optimistic view of a technology that often carries doomsday messages.
The platform predicts that by 2030, the typical skills required for employment worldwide will change by 68% from today.
According to the report’s authors, the soft, interpersonal characteristics of skills such as leadership and cooperation are overwhelmingly possessed by women. On LinkedIn, women have a 28% higher share of soft skills than men.
While this is a positive view of AI’s ability to influence gender dynamics, women will have to be wary of its negative consequences. LinkedIn’s Duke notes that men make up the majority of AI talent. Research has shown that women are also at greater risk than men due to technology.
“Opportunities for women to progress in their careers will disappear unless employers take a gender perspective into upskilling to ensure the workplace is transformed in a fair and equitable way.”
further reading
British Gen Z women are unlikely to close the gender pay gap before retirement, says PwC study
Just 5% of the core skills job candidates need today will remain the same in three years, says McKinsey: ‘Companies won’t find perfect unicorns’
Single women are struggling to make ends meet: hampered by the wage gap and inflation, they struggle to accumulate wealth or accumulate emergency savings.