If AI fluency is the new labor market currency, women may be getting shortchanged. According to this year’s Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org—the largest study of the state of women in corporate America—fewer entry-level women report that their managers have encouraged them to use AI, compared with entry-level men (21 percent of entry-level women, compared with 33 percent of men).
McKinsey’s Alexis Krivkovich, Drew Goldstein, and Megan McConnell find that AI encouragement is linked closely not only to the actual use of these tools but also to an employee’s career outlook. Thirty-seven percent of entry-level women believe using AI will improve their career prospects, compared with 60 percent of employees overall (while not all entry-level women are Gen Z, many Gen Z women are at the entry-level stage of their careers).
The AI gap that emerged from this year’s data is one of several findings that illustrate why some Gen Z women may feel like work just isn’t working for them. Consider this: Entry-level women are the least likely of any demographic group to have a sponsor, this year’s report finds. When they do, they are roughly half as likely as men at their level to have multiple sponsors, or sponsors in a senior role: that is, the kinds of advocates who can most influence their career advancement. Four in ten entry-level women say they haven’t received a promotion, stretch assignment, or leadership or career training opportunity—moments that can function as early career accelerators—in the past two years.
On top of that, entry-level women report feeling less comfortable disagreeing openly or making mistakes. When their competence is questioned sooner, women understandably become more cautious. That caution means they are less likely to be offered the stretch opportunities that signal leadership potential, which in turn fuels leaders’ perceptions that they’re not ready for the next step, the report notes. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle that starts early.
All this makes one data point in the report even more striking: Young women are still ambitious, but their interest in being promoted falls with limited support or competing demands on their time. Eighty-eight percent of entry-level women say their career is important to them, roughly the same level as entry-level men. But only 69 percent of entry-level women say they want a promotion, compared with 80 percent of entry-level men. (Almost 25 percent of entry- and senior-level women who are not interested in promotion say that personal obligations, like housework, make it hard to take on additional work—compared with just 15 percent of comparable men.)
How can young women’s ambitions be better supported in the workplace? This year’s report suggests a few ways: elevating early-career development as a strategic priority, closing the AI encouragement gap before it becomes entrenched, and operationalizing fairness in hiring and promotions. Only about half of companies say women’s career advancement is a high priority, and even fewer are prioritizing advancement for women of color.
When employees are encouraged to use AI, they’re over 50 percent more likely to do so, allowing them to build essential skills rather than deepening skills gaps. And greater transparency to promotion pathways, consistently applied criteria, and accountability for developing diverse talent can create environments where employees believe advancement is attainable, making them more likely to pursue it. What’s yet to be determined: whether this generation of women at work progresses on a level path or faces the same uphill climb as those before them. |
