Good morning! Victoria's Secret swaps out DEI language, The Economist releases their Glass Ceiling Index, and Fortune’s Nina Ajemian dives into a new book identifying the most critical moment for women at work.
- When the career ladder breaks. In Trump-era America, companies are eliminating their diversity and inclusion functions left and right, and chief diversity officers are eager to find new ways to package their skills. Three who make a case for the insight these executives can bring to an organization, no matter their title, are McKinsey’s Lareina Yee, Kweilin Ellingrud, and Maria del Mar Martinez, all of whom at one point held the title of chief diversity and inclusion officer at the consulting firm. Together, the senior partners are coauthors of a new book, The Broken Rung, which publishes March 11.
The three know well how difficult it can be to change organizations. So they decided to instead share their insights on an individual level. “Instead of writing a book about how companies can change, let's write a book about everything we would have wanted to know as we were working our way through,” Yee says.
Yee, now McKinsey Global Institute director, argues that while today’s climate presents its own challenges, it’s never been easy for women. “The working world is not an even playing field for women,” she says.
For 10 years, McKinsey has partnered with Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn.Org to release a seminal annual report on Women in the Workplace. That research identified the “broken rung” on the corporate ladder where women first fall behind in the climb to the top—and is where the book gets its title.
“The actual issue is not the glass ceiling, but the very first step,” says Yee. In 2024, 81 women for every 100 men got their first promotion to manager. And the broken rung is just one part of the problem. “It's not just the point of promotion,” Yee says. “It's all the hundreds of things that lead up to you being the most qualified candidate on the slate.”
Yee and her coauthors advise women to learn skills on the job, something they call building “experience capital.” That experience accounts for half of most people’s lifetime earnings, with the other half credited to education and other skills. But men have more opportunities to learn on the job—an under-discussed contributor to pay disparities. “[Women] are not getting the same opportunities to learn, develop new skills on the job, or make strategic career decisions in the same ways or at the same rates as men,” the authors write.
Entrepreneurship skills—even within large organizations—are key to progressing. Taking initiative, suggesting new ideas, or starting new ventures all fall under this mantle.
If that’s not happening, however, the authors have another piece of advice: Know when to leave. They call that being the “portfolio manager of your own career.”
It’s a philosophy that applies to the current DEI backlash as well: Know what matters. "I'm not worried about what companies title their work. I'm worried about the substance,” Yee says. ”Women of all tenures can make sure that the programs that were making a difference continue to happen. If there were programs that weren't helping, don't worry about them—let them go."
Nina Ajemian
nina.ajemian@fortune.com
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