Women face a 'broken rung' early on in the corporate ladder and are missing out on their first big promotions

• A Lean In and McKinsey report found that fewer women than men in entry-level jobs were promoted to manager.
• Lean In's CEO said fixing the "broken rung" would mean more women representation in the work pipeline.
• One thing that can be done is to remind people about biases ahead of promotion cycles.

Women's largest obstacle to career advancement is reaching the next rung on the ladder. A new study found that women are less likely than men to move up and become managers.

That's according to the ninth annual "Women in the Workplace" report by McKinsey & Company and Lean In, which collected information on gender at work in 2022 from 276 organizations employing over 10 million people. The report found that "for every 100 men promoted from entry level to manager, 87 women were promoted."

"While we have this laser focus typically on the glass ceiling, what we need is a laser focus on the broken rung," Alexis Krivkovich, a senior partner for McKinsey, told Insider. "Because the very first step up to manager still after all these years is the most inequitable."

Rachel Thomas, CEO of Lean In, told Insider that fixing the broken rung would mean more women managers, directors, and upward momentum in the talent pipeline.

"While companies are increasing women's representation at the top, doing so without addressing the broken rung offers only a temporary stopgap," the report stated. "Because of the gender disparity in early promotions, men end up holding 60% of manager-level positions in a typical company, while women occupy 40%."

Looking further up the ladder, women occupy only 36% of senior manager or director roles and 28% of C-suite positions at the companies analyzed in the study.

Krivkovich said that for women of color, the number who are promoted from entry-level to manager level relative to every 100 men "is even worse."

The broken rung doesn't have to be a never-ending problem. Thomas and Krivkovich agreed there are ways to remove the hurdles for women looking to climb professionally.

For example, employers can remind managers and those conducting promotions about potential biases they may have ahead of promotion cycles, Thomas said. Companies should look at the women being promoted, the promotion outcomes, and "those metrics by race and gender so that women of color are not inadvertently overlooked" for advancement opportunities.

"One really simple thing they can do is ask evaluators to explain their rationale," Thomas said. "We know from research that when you have to explain why you rated someone a certain way or why you gave input on their performance that you did, that it really allows you to step back and think critically about your own evaluation and de-bias yourself."

Thomas also said given the "broken rung is more broken for women of color," there should also be "a laser focus on women of color, making sure that there are career development and mentorship and sponsorship programs designed specifically to address the distinct bias and barriers they're facing."