New 2025 data: women want the promotion as much as men do, once they get the same support
Four in five women report that they are hoping to be promoted. So do 86% of men. Per the 2025 Women in the Workplace report produced by McKinsey alongside LeanIn, once women are given the identical backing that men already get, that six-point gap disappears entirely.
Long-standing wisdom held that women were thinning out above director level mainly because they were less interested in climbing. They opt out, the thinking went. They put family first. They are "less ambitious," a description offered in more talent reviews than anyone would readily admit. The data points somewhere else. The ambition exists at almost the same rate, and what remains is not a personality trait but a reaction to circumstances.
The source of this figure
Since 2015, McKinsey and LeanIn have annually followed American companies and the people who work for them through the Women in the Workplace research. In the 2025 round, researchers first polled women and men about their desire to move up, and afterward looked at the other traits shared by those who answered yes. The headline gap is the six points. The finding beneath it is that among employees who reported equal support from managers, sponsors and encouragement, the gap disappears. Because this is an observational survey and not a controlled experiment, it stops short of demonstrating that backing actually produces ambition. It does show the two move together, and it undermines the idea that women want it less when they are receiving what men receive. That same research showed that 31% of women starting out have a sponsor, while among men the figure reaches 45%. What is absent is the backing, and its absence begins at the very start of a career.
What it looks like in the room
Imagine sitting in a talent review, as a vice president weighing an open SVP role. The slate has three names, two of them men. A colleague in Portland observes that the woman being considered "hasn't really put her hand up." You, however, know her far better than that. Twice she has voiced her ambitions during one-on-one talks with a manager, who simply nodded and carried on with the agenda. The men on the slate never needed to speak up for themselves, since their sponsors spoke on their behalf in gatherings much like this one. The ambition is the same. The advocacy is not. When the meeting wraps up, her candidacy has picked up doubt, and that doubt lands on her rather than on the manager who never passed her ambition along.
Why this matters for your career
If you have ever been told you need to "want it more," you were likely handed the wrong diagnosis, often by someone whose own ambition was never scrutinized. Whatever closes this gap does not originate in your own character. It's a manager who names you when you aren't present, a sponsor who puts you on the slate, and encouragement that shows up before you have to ask. Either an employer builds these supports in or it leaves them out. You can go looking for them, but recognize that you're making up for a missing input, not repairing a flaw.
Taking action
Let your interest be known clearly so no one can miss it. Put it in an email to your manager: "I would like to be considered for the next director-level opening." Ask what you would need to demonstrate for your name to go forward, and then request that one senior leader from outside your reporting line act as a reference once the slate is assembled. You will have assembled, through your own effort, the backing that men usually receive without asking. Portland's own networks can help you find those senior voices. Groups such as PDX Professional Women in Building Council, WIFS Portland Metro, and Women Presidents' Organization Portland Chapter offer places to meet leaders who may be willing to sponsor you.
Who in your company says your name when you're not in the room?