There's a glaring inequitable gender experience in America's C-suite—and it's hurting companies

Whether you love your job, hate your job, or land somewhere in between, how you feel about where you work describes your employee experience. Generally, employee experience becomes more favorable, or trends upward, as employees ascend the leadership ranks. And that makes sense: Years of hard work leads to increased visibility, confidence, and capacity to effect meaningful change across an organization.

Survey findings reveal as much. Our recent study of sentiment in the workplace analyzed engagement and inclusion survey responses we ran from April 30, 2022 to April 30, 2024 from more than 1.3 million employees at all leadership levels across over 3,000 global companies. Of the respondents, over 8,300 were C-suite leaders.

Four in five C-suite leaders agree the company extrinsically motivates them to go beyond what they would in a similar role elsewhere, compared with just 56% of employees at the individual contributor (IC) level. When it comes to intention to stay, 71% of C-suite executives rarely think about looking for a job at another company, while only 47% of ICs say the same. In short, the higher in the hierarchy, the better overall employee experience they will have.

Employee experiences

Imagine you’ve worked hard for years, gradually earning positions with higher authority and visibility. You’ve put in the hours, paid your dues, and your career trajectory is a reflection of that. And now you finally have the power to shape your company.

Data shows that C-suite leaders agree that they feel included in decision-making, appropriately involved in decisions that affect their work, and valued for their contributions. But when you ask more junior employees (manager level and below), the story changes.

Employees below the VP level are between 16 and 30 points less likely to agree that they feel valued and included at work. In other words, their employee experience is measurably worse than those above them. That negative experience can impact employee engagement and well-being and take a toll on performance.

Why do the experiences vary so highly? One interpretation is that when a person is further down the chain of command with less explicit power over their work, their employee experience is less favorable. If you have the visibility and decision-making power that comes with a C-suite position, on the other hand, it’s natural that your experience will be more positive.

But while that holds true broadly, when you break down the employee experience by gender within the C-suite, you uncover a concerning gap. For women in the C-suite, that heightened experience at the top is stymied. There is a documented pay gap between men and women at all levels, including executive leadership, but it doesn’t explain it all.

Pay isn’t the only gender disparity at the top

The number of women at each level of a company begins to dwindle as leadership stage rises. At the top of the leadership ladder, women make up just 25% to 30% of the C-suite. That’s a stark difference from gender representation at the IC level, which is 49% men and 51% women.

Why is there such a marked dropoff from the IC level, where women are slightly more represented than men? This visible disparity may be indicative of imbued systemic biases within organizations.

One way this manifests is in a lack of equitable performance management that puts women at a disadvantage. Our recent DEI report found women were less likely than men to agree that the right people are rewarded and recognized, and that sentiment increased as their leadership level rose. As women in leadership roles oversee larger groups of employees, the gap between their perceptions and their male counterparts’ widens.

DEI initiatives could help close that gap, prompting companies to reassess outdated performance expectations, how performance is measured, and how opportunities are awarded in an equitable way. But without proper performance management that supports employees from all backgrounds, disparities will continue.

High-ranking women and their experience at work

Many women executives find that reaching the C-suite doesn’t guarantee the sense of belonging and inclusion they hoped for, or that their male peers seem to be experiencing. Virtually all men executives agree that their opinion is valued, they belong at their company, and they feel respected. For women executives, however, only 89% agree their opinion is valued, 80% feel they belong, and a mere 75% feel respected.

And executive women’s feeling of belonging is notably more aligned with ICs, of whom 77% (regardless of gender) agree that they belong at the company. Executive women having an experience that is closer to that of ICs suggests that women are acutely aware of gender disparities as they rise through the ranks, whereas men are not.

Ultimately, this could mean women executives are more in touch with the rest of the employee experience than male executives are. Looking at the experience of C-suite women, specifically, is likely a valuable way to identify areas for improvement across the organization.

When women leaders feel a weaker sense of belonging, consequences could ripple through an organization’s culture and performance. A lack of belonging can erode engagement and commitment, likely leading to higher turnover rates among women leaders—a particularly costly loss. As women leaders leave or become disengaged, organizations lose out on the diverse perspectives that fuel innovation, and they risk perpetuating a culture where future women leaders struggle to see themselves represented at the top. This cycle of attrition can weaken the pipeline of talent, making it harder to cultivate diverse leadership in the long term.

What’s worse, an inequitable sense of belonging among leaders based on gender sends a message to the rest of the workforce. When employees observe that women in leadership roles feel marginalized or unsupported, it can reinforce negative perceptions about the organization’s commitment to equity and inclusion. This perception can diminish trust across the organization, hurting morale and reducing the overall effectiveness of the workforce. In contrast, fostering a sense of belonging for women leaders can serve as a catalyst for a more equitable culture.

Our research shows that some of the most effective tactics for building equitable, inclusive workplaces are:

Fair and equitable performance evaluations
Enshrining regular opportunities for employees to be heard
Assessing biases in talent management and succession planning
Embracing decision-making frameworks to further inclusion

By taking these initiatives seriously, companies can change the way leadership is defined and not only make more room for women at the top, but foster a more equitable experience for every employee.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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