Women are looking to climb the corporate ladder, but broken steps are holding them back from reaching their full potential. Bridget Griswold, the 25-year-old CEO of women\u2019s empowerment non-profit Lean In, is already witnessing how early-career setbacks reverberate in leadership representation around the country.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat is a huge problem that women face, and where this is manifesting is in this thing that we call at Lean In, the broken rung,\u201d Griswold told editorial director Kristin Stoller onstage at Fortune<\/em>\u2019s annual Most Powerful Women conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Tuesday. \u201cThe broken rung is one of the most entrenched problems that women face, and it\u2019s early in their career. It\u2019s the first promotion, from entry-level, to manager.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Gen Z CEO noted that only 93 entry-level women were promoted to manager for every 100 entry-level men in 2025. It may seem like a small gap, Griswold said, but it\u2019s just the first hurdle that has a domino effect on their career success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis really matters because if women\u2014if once you don\u2019t get that first promotion\u2014it\u2019s then really hard to catch up,\u201d the Lean In leader said. \u201cWe can\u2019t fix the problems for underrepresentation of women at the top if we can\u2019t fix the broken rung at the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n
But mending the step and leveling the playing field for women isn\u2019t impossible. Griswold said back in 2021, nine out of 10 companies made diversity a priority. The progress nearly closed the broken rung for Black women the following year\u2014but without sustained effort in the years since, the problem has reemerged. In 2025, only 60 Black women were promoted for every 100 men. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese numbers were going in the wrong direction,\u201d Griswold said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While women continue to face barriers to advancement, Griswold\u2019s own career trajectory offers a glimpse into what leadership can look like when young women get the opportunity to break through. Griswold\u2019s meteoric rise as CEO of the massive global women\u2019s empowerment nonprofit has been anything but ordinary: The organization\u2019s founder, former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, appointed Griswold to the top role following her brief stint as a Meta product manager. It\u2019s extremely rare to see Gen Zers at the helm of companies\u2014especially ones whom they didn\u2019t found themselves. However, she said believes her age is actually an asset as CEO.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to believe I\u2019m quite fearless, which I think has treated me well in this role,\u201d Griswold said. \u201cAnd in being young, it really allows me to trust in my leadership team\u2026for a lot of counsel and domain expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the fresh-faced leader of Lean In, the Gen Zer believes women shouldn\u2019t have to wait for their turn to lead. Her appointment as CEO drew a lot of attention, with critics wondering if she was too young for the job. But in response to the scrutiny, Griswold said a conversation with Sandberg illuminated double standards, and reinforced the need to change the expectations about where young women could go.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a young man gets a big job in our world, it\u2019s not really that interesting, because it happens often,\u201d the Gen Z leader said. \u201cWhen a young woman gets a big job, which happened to me, it\u2019s a little more interesting because it\u2019s rare. And that is why I do this work: so that when women get big jobs, it won\u2019t be something that\u2019s surprising. It will just be a matter of fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Gen #CEO #Lean #broken #rung #pervasive #issue #women #face #careers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Women are looking to climb the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4597,269,3107,2686,2687,283,1405,633,523,542,536,2794,3858,1903,850,1980,9842,5052,9841,9840,167,667],"class_list":["post-6724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-broken","tag-business","tag-career-advancement","tag-career-success","tag-careers","tag-ceo","tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","tag-executives","tag-face","tag-gen","tag-gen-z","tag-gender-issues","tag-issue","tag-lean","tag-meta","tag-most-powerful-women","tag-pervasive","tag-promotions","tag-rung","tag-sheryl-sandberg","tag-women","tag-young-adults"],"yoast_head":"\n
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