LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company deliver an annual report on the state of “women in the workplace” across North America.
Published last week, the 2025 edition highlights what the authors perceive to be a troubling issue: that women have become noticeably less ambitious than men for the first time.
Why? Because women are less likely than men to want to get promoted.
The report authors have labelled this desire-to-get-a-promotion difference as an “ambition gap”. They certainly do not imply that women have any less motivation to do their best work, but rather that this gap in ambition stems from a lack of workplace support, for which there is plenty of evidence to show is waning.
But do we really need to be talking about a gender ambition gap?
First, we’re not hearing that ambition is slowing among Australian women, whom we regularly survey as part of our women’s ambitions report series, the last of which was published in May 2025.
If anything, Australian women are more ambitious than ever before. But not necessarily for a promotion.
Which brings me to my second point: how is a desire for a promotion the benchmark of what it means to be ambitious?
We find, year after year, that the leading ambition for women is actually to “earn more,” but women’s overall ambitions are extensive.
Surveying around 1200 women each year, our research finds that women hold ambitions covering everything from changing employers, to starting a business, switching industries, retraining, writing a book, and even earning less money in pursuit of something they believe can “give back” to society and others.
Indeed, just like Sheryl Sandberg did when leaving Meta, a woman leaning out of her existing workplace, especially one with problematic ethics that is arguably doing more harm to society than good, may actually be the most ambitious thing she can do.
Meanwhile, there are good reasons why women may not always list “get a promotion” as their top priority – possibly due to burnout, and because, for many, that burnout stems from their experiences with their existing managers.
Our 2025 Women’s Ambitions Report found that three-quarters of women believe they may have experienced burnout in the past 12 months. Around a third of those who did report burnout attributed it to a manager or boss. This year’s Women in the Workplace report also touches on burnout, finding that six in ten senior-level women report “frequently feeling burned out”, compared with only half of men at the same level and around four in ten employees overall.
The desire-to-get-promoted gender gap
Now in its 11th year, LeanIn.org and McKinsey surveyed data from 124 US and Canadian companies and 9500 employees to assess HR programs and policies, talent pipeline data and employee experience surveys.
It attributes the widening “ambition gap” (again, based on the desire to get promoted) to companies pulling back on commitments to women’s career advancement, sponsorship and stretch opportunities.
It finds that when women receive the same support as men, the “ambition gap” (desire-to-get-promoted gap) disappears. This indicates that the problem is solvable, as the report authors note.
So while there is a “noticeable” gap now in the desire to get promoted, just how significant is it?
Eighty per cent of women said they want to be promoted to the next level compared to 86 per cent of men.
Granted, the gap widens at the junior level, at 69 per cent compared with 80 per cent of men.
But are we really going to attribute that to young women lacking ambition compared to young men, or even when compared to women in senior positions (with 84 per cent of those in such positions wanting to get promoted).
Can we not attribute it to younger women being, perhaps, more ambitious for themselves than to compete within a corporate pipeline of women that gets narrower the further up the leadership chain it goes?
Or that young women may be ambitious for pursuits outside of traditional corporate and professional structures, such as considering teaching and social services or working within not-for-profits and roles that have more direct consequences for society?
Perhaps these women have ambitions to do things their own way. To gain some experience before starting their own business, on their own terms?
Meanwhile, could it be that women employed in these companies studied by McKinsey are just better at reading the room and seeing how quickly their employers succumb to anti-DEI rhetoric peddled by Trump?
Reshma Saujani, Founder of Moms First, says the “ambition gap” is not exactly a mystery but rather “the logical outcome of the past year of companies backsliding on their commitments to women in the workplace.”
“Women aren’t losing ambition. We’re just paying attention,” she wrote on LinkedIn.
And those paying attention may quickly realise their talents and efforts are better spent pursuing ambitions outside of their current employer.