A man and a woman are both up for the same promotion. They’ve spent six months at the company and are looking to get promoted from entry-level to a manager position. Both have short track records at the company, limited work experience, and novice expertise being new to the workforce. They enter the office and the boss delivers the news. 

More often than not, the man will get the job. According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report for every 100 men who get promotions only 85 women do. This leads to men holding 62% of managerial-level positions while women hold just 38%. This faulty first step in women’s rise up to the corporate ladder is known as the “broken rung”.

And a fumble in this first step is costly, as studies show that men are more likely to promote other men and women are more likely to promote other women. This “broken rung” cascades to fewer women at the mid-level and subsequently fewer women at the senior-level, and so forth. 

Additionally, corporations have moved glacially slow in resolving this discrepancy. For six running years, the “broken rung” has gone unamended. There is no time to wait on the turtle pace of corporate responsiveness. Instead, here are a few things to do to hurdle over this gender bias:

• Find a mentor. Having someone in your court come decision time goes a long way. Employees with mentors are five times (yes, five-times!) more likely to get a promotion than people without a mentor. 

• Learn, learn, learn. Always have your student thinking cap on. An optimistic indicator for gender parity in business is the rise of female enrollment in MBA programs. Women are empowering themselves to continuously learn new skills to further add value in the workplace. So, whether that’s getting an online degree or reading an insight-packed book, always keep your mind open to learning opportunities. 

• Before you get the title, do the job. If you do the job, come decision time there can be no question that you are unqualified. Prove your up for the challenge by proactively tackling the challenge. 

• Always know your worth. If you know you’re the best candidate for the position, speak up, and advocate for your promotion. If you think gender bias plays a role in the situation, call it out. The thing that will carry you through promotion or getting passed up for a promotion and any workplace hurdle, is knowing your worth. 

Women have fought for decades first to get into the workplace, next to demand the respect they deserve in the workplace and continuously, to call out gender biases that are Achilles heels in female success. While strides have been made, this unaddressed broken rung continues to hinder women’s rise to the top of the corporate food chain. It’s important to bring awareness to these biases in order to actively make efforts to empower ourselves and our female peers to move beyond them. 

Source: McKinsey | GreatBusinessSchools | Guider