Fewer women are being promoted to the top ranks, often lacking critical leadership support

• Key Insight: Here's why companies are dropping targeted professional development programs for women.
• What's at Stake: Businesses that scale back diversity efforts risk triggering massive turnover and a specific organizational threat.
• Expert Quote: "If those opportunities are eliminated women fall farther behind." — Wendy Lee Berger, Impact.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review.

The path to the C-suite is narrowing for women who will be needing more support from leaders to advance their careers. 

Women now hold just 31% of senior leadership roles, according to recent data from professional services firm Grant Thornton, down 4% from recent years. Those who are in leadership roles remain more likely to hold functional roles such as chief human resources officer and chief marketing officer over top executive positions like CEO or chief operating managers, a trend that extends to low numbers among partners and chairpersons, too. 

The responsibility of bridging that gap for women will fall predominantly on leaders and their professional development efforts.  

"Career progression for women isn't just when they're one step down from the C-suite — it's about the lead up," said Wendy Lee Berger, global lead of client service and operations at tech company Impact. "If you don't get promoted early in your career, that opportunity has a knock-on effect into the future. It can turn into an ongoing lag in women's potential to hit those very senior roles." 

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Driving the drop in women holding leadership roles is the recent public perception and political discourse around diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. In 2026 roughly 55% of organizations have publicly signaled a retreat or rebrand of their DEI efforts, according to a recent report from corporate research platform Catalyst, with actual operational reductions reaching up to 34%. Companies are dropping targeted programs for women not because they don't believe in them, according to Berger, but because they fear some kind of retribution. As a result, women's access to professional development resources has become severely limited.

"[Career progression] is all about opportunities and if those opportunities are eliminated women fall farther behind," Berger said. "It's not that women don't want to be senior leaders or that they're not ambitious; they just don't understand how to navigate the professional ladder and don't have the right structure in place to get to where they want to go." 

It's not just women who face the consequences of these actions, according to Berger: Other marginalized groups also suffer when DEI efforts are scaled back, which could lead to massive turnover. The businesses themselves could also face significant repercussions, she said. A team only made up of people with similar backgrounds and perspectives can foster groupthink, limiting innovation and making it harder for organizations to spot potential problems or opportunities.

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Implementing the right support

Creating clearer pathways to promotion and making talent development a managerial responsibility can help women advance, Berger said. Managers should be expected not only to oversee their teams' day-to-day work, but also to actively prepare employees for their next roles. Senior sponsorship is especially important, she added. 

While mentors can offer advice, sponsors have the influence and access to advocate for employees, recommend them for stretch assignments, and identify opportunities they might otherwise never know existed. A women's leadership program Impact previously launched demonstrated the effectiveness: Each participant was paired with a C-suite sponsor who actively advocated for her advancement, helping create a pipeline of women into senior leadership.

Organizations hesitant to add programs that target certain demographics outright could still benefit from these strategies, according to Berger, because providing additional support open to all employees would still reap advantages for women in the end. 

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"If you can't have straight up women's leadership programs, what can you do for all of your people that will help women in understanding what they need to do to advance," Berger said. "Otherwise it's a closed door for everyone." 

Unfortunately, there may always be a persistent undercurrent of bias or misogyny that would require a full culture change to eradicate. But when thinking about the future, Berger said she's encouraged by progress that has already been made over the years, and is hopeful that it can and will continue.

"I don't think that the challenges we're facing are insurmountable," she said. "I want to be optimistic, because I'm a senior leader myself, and I do practice what I preach and I sponsor my people and I look for opportunities for them. That gives me hope that there's more people like me out there."