Twelve years after Sheryl Sandberg’s best-seller Lean In sparked a workplace movement urging women to push for advancement, many are now leaning out. A new survey by LeanIn.org, the nonprofit Sandberg founded alongside the book’s release in 2013, conducted with McKinsey & Company shows a notable drop in women’s ambition.
LeanIn.org’s annual “Women in the Workplace” report, released Tuesday (Dec. 9) and based on data from 124 companies in the U.S. and Canada, finds for the first time that women are less likely than men to say they want a promotion. In 2025, 80 percent of women sought a promotion compared to 86 percent of men. In prior years, ambition levels were aligned. Last year, for example, both were at 70 percent.
“We do see that ambition gap, but only when women don’t get the opportunities and support they need,” Sandberg said in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday.
She said the gap stems from persistent barriers at every career stage. Two in 10 companies now say women’s advancement is a low or nonexistent priority—a figure that rises to three in 10 for women of color. About half of the companies that previously contributed to the report also no longer prioritize advancing women, Sandberg said.
Day-to-day, these barriers are reflected in how ambition is perceived and rewarded. Women are 30 percent more likely than men to be labeled “aggressive” when they ask for raises or promotions, and men in senior roles are 70 percent more likely than their female peers to be selected for leadership training.
Sandberg argues the solution is straightforward: “Standardize your processes. Establish criteria in advance that everyone agrees to that are universally applied.”
The report also notes the impact of post-COVID return-to-office mandates. A quarter of surveyed companies now offer fewer remote and hybrid options—policies that disproportionately affect women, who make up about two-thirds of U.S. caregivers. Women who work mostly remotely face stigma for using flexibility benefits, whereas men generally do not.
Gender diversity programs are also shrinking. Nearly one-sixth of companies have reduced formal leadership sponsorships and scaled back programs designed for women. These cuts come amid the Trump administration’s rollback of DEI efforts and the rise of natalist policies that encourage women to have more children.
As rhetoric promoting stay-at-home motherhood gains traction, Sandberg said the data doesn’t support the idea that staying home is inherently better for families. These expectations, she added, “were never really gone.” Even now, she said, “Do I really think we ever fully encouraged leadership in…women as much as men?” The answer is no.
“If you can afford to be a full-time spouse and a full-time parent as a man or a woman and you want to do that, I think that can be deeply fulfilling work,” said Sandberg. “Most women don’t have that option.”
Ultimately, Sandberg said expanding leadership opportunities for women is an economic imperative. “It’s a question of economic productivity,” she said. “Do we want to get the best out of our workforce?”
Rachel Curry
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