I was flabbergasted to learn that in the first 8 months of 2025, almost a half a million women left the U.S. workforce, and 58% of them left voluntarily! This, according to research by Catalyst, the global nonprofit women’s think tank.
In fact, 42% reported caregiving responsibilities, including the cost of childcare, as the strongest factor behind their decision to leave. It’s an issue that will only get worse unless we focus on the causes and try to provide solutions.
Why Organizations Must Act Now to Retain Women Leaders
Just think about it: Millennials (born 1981-1996) are about 22% of the U.S. population, and Gen Z (born 1997-2012) makes up almost 21%, according to Statista. That’s almost half of the U.S. workforce. The global cohort of Millennials is 1.8 billion, with Gen Z global count being 2 billion! By most counts, women make up about half.
These numbers are not only enormous; they highlight the fact that we need to act. When your organization is losing so many people – voluntarily – imagine how many of them are high potentials, good team collaborators, innovative team members, and future leaders?
The Structural and Cultural Barriers Facing Women Leaders
Many of the issues these women face are structural and are part of an organization’s Corporate Culture. For example, women who were in organizations that reversed flexible schedules created during COVID-19 and enforced strict Return-to-Office policies were more likely to leave than those who had flexibility. On the other hand, some of these issues can be mitigated by each of us, individually: managers and colleagues alike.
Identifying the Leadership Challenges Millennials and Gen Z Women Face
Millennial and Gen Z women who are thinking about leadership roles are facing a time when the global marketplace is extremely unpredictable; when the workplace is being reshaped by AI, by virtual teams and remote work, by social expectations, and by a renewed focus on well-being and purpose.
They’re navigating a workplace where “leadership potential” is still often viewed by outdated assumptions, such as “face time” being an indicator of commitment or the assumption that a woman who has childrearing and eldercare responsibilities is less available for critical, high-profile projects.
Although some things are changing, such as some men taking on childcare and family responsibilities, it is still clear that, in general, women do more work before and after their paid jobs.
Very often, they are also distressed at the lack of mentors, what Fortune magazine referred to as “a crisis of mentorship” with only a few of the Millennials they surveyed saying they have “healthy leadership models.” They also expressed a lack of training they felt they needed to prepare them for their changing responsibilities.
The Mentorship and Sponsorship Gap
The lack of mentors and sponsors is a challenge echoed again and again. According to McKinsey, women are as committed to their careers as men, but tend not to receive the same support as men. This is especially the case with sponsors. The research showed that entry-level women have the least amount of any group, and when they do, they’re still promoted more slowly. Their research indicates that, in the past two years, employees with sponsors were promoted twice as fast.
Changing Attitudes Toward Leadership
One additional challenge is clearly articulated by research from CEC European Managers, representing over 1 million professionals across Europe, that indicates younger employees may not be so eager to take traditional routes to leadership. In fact, one study reports that 42% of their Gen Z respondents would like to avoid ever being middle managers, a role traditionally part of mobility to upper levels of organizational leadership. They see it as highly stressful and potentially unrewarding. The same research also mirrors what has become common knowledge: that Gen Z tends to prioritize personal growth, flexibility, and job satisfaction.
But Gen Z isn’t alone. According to the study by McKinsey and LeanIn, while women are as committed to upward mobility, there have been several years when companies have declined in their commitment to gender diversity. Consequently, for the first time, women participants declare they are less interested in being promoted than men.
What Organizations Can Do: Build a Corporate Culture that Advances Women Leaders
Organizations often say they want more women leaders, yet they unintentionally reward the same old patterns. This mismatch can feel discouraging, fast.
A good start is to make leadership behaviors obvious, clear, and measurable. If you want next-gen leaders to grow, they need consistent access to high-value work, accessible feedback, and sponsors who actively open doors. That means managers must be equipped with specific, clear ways to develop talent in the flow of work.
As McKinsey and LeanIn research has shown again and again, the “Broken Rung” is the impediment that happens early in one’s career when their promotion is slow in coming. When women do not get that first promotion to manager, the disparity continues throughout the rise to senior leadership. According to their study, in 2025, 93 women were promoted to manager for every 100 men; for women of color, it was 74 per 100.
Practical Actions for Organizations:
- Define leadership behaviors clearly: decision-making, stakeholder influence, accountability, and team-building. Be sure leaders model them visibly.
- Review availability of stretch assignments regularly: Who gets them? Who doesn’t? Notice patterns and fix them when necessary.
- Normalize sponsorship as a leadership responsibility: require leaders to name who they’re sponsoring and what doors they’re opening.
- Train managers on bias in potential: “polished,” “confident,” and “ready” can hide subjective standards; calibrate with evidence-based criteria.
- Make feedback frequent and specific: shift from annual surprises to monthly coaching, especially after presentations, project launches, and cross-functional team work.
- Build flexible ways to lead: not everyone leads loudly in the room; create multiple ways to demonstrate impact, such as written updates, demos, or async leadership.
- Provide training that emphasizes team communication and collaboration.
- Measure progress: promotions, compensation, retention, and pipeline movement.
What Individuals Can Do to Strengthen Their Leadership Trajectory
Many Millennial and Gen Z women are already doing the work, delivering results, managing teams, and navigating complexity with emotional intelligence. The next step is making that impact unmistakably visible to decision-makers. Not through self-promotion that feels inauthentic, but through clear positioning: “Here’s what I’m driving, here’s the value, and here’s what’s next.”
This also means building important competence and skills early. Learn how decisions get made in your organization, and then try to indicate that you have ideas. When you understand the “rules of the game,” you can play it more effectively, while also changing it for those coming behind you.
Practical Actions for Individuals:
- Ask for stretch work intentionally: “I’d like a project that builds X skill. Here are two tasks I can own.”
- Build a sponsor list: Identify people you know who can advocate for you across functions and levels. Include people who can influence others and talk about your skills and accomplishments.
- Get feedback in the moment: After key meetings, ask, “What should I do more of next time? What should I do differently?”
- Request skill-building and training to enhance your abilities to lead teams, understand culture, and model leadership behavior.
- Be cognizant of your energy: leadership requires endurance; recognize energy expenditure around deep work; build in recovery.
Developing Women Leaders in Today’s Workplace
Next-generation leaders are growing up in a workplace that is faster, more transparent, and more fluid than the one many current executives have experienced. They expect learning to be continuous, feedback to be real, and culture to be lived, not just stated. They also care about fairness, mental health, and meaning, and they can spot “performative leadership.” This is a strength to harness.
Development should meet them where they are: micro-coaching, real projects, cross-functional exposure, and visible pathways to interesting and skill-building assignments. Organizations that treat leadership development as a system that is clear, fair, and actionable will have individuals who treat their growth as a strategy and will rise with more confidence, greater experience, and less burnout. In that scenario, not only is it good for the upcoming leaders, the organization is a big winner.
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If you are thinking about how to elevate and retain the next wave of women leaders in your organization, join us for our upcoming webinar.
