Women’s Progression in the Workplace Summary

A Summary of the Barriers Women Face in the Workplace

Women in the workforce face a deeply embedded system of structural and cultural barriers that hinder their career progression. The expectation of full-time, always-available workers clashes with caregiving responsibilities, leaving mothers at a disadvantage. Bias against alternative work patterns, the limited part-time opportunities, and stagnant pay create a cycle where women must choose between career growth and family responsibilities—often at great financial and professional cost. Even those working full-time remain disadvantaged by a lack of transparency in recruitment, promotion, and pay decisions, reinforcing inequality, especially in male-dominated industries. 

The 2019 rapid evidence review analyses 175 studies between 2000-2018 to determine what is stalling women’s progression in UK workplaces. This thorough review found unequivocally that the biggest barrier to women’s career progression was a conflict between current ways of organising work and caregiving responsibilities. The following barriers outlined below begin and end with the organisational norms and processes that systematically prevent mothers from progressing in their careers as they create a cycle of compounding barriers that leave them with few options to escape the penalties of motherhood. 

The "Ideal Worker" Bias: How Rigid Norms Penalise Mothers 

The research found organisational norms towards working full-time, long-hours, associating constant availability with employee commitment, negatively impacted working mothers who struggle to adhere to these working patterns while being a caregiver. These organisational norms let gender bias seep into decision-making. Research showed that managers viewed women unfavourably for reducing hours or seeking flexible work. Seen as straying from the "ideal worker," the evidence found they faced steep pay penalties, especially when they worked below 40 hours a week. 

The Part-Time Penalty: Limited Opportunities and Stagnant Wages 

Beyond the bias against those who utilise alternative working patterns, the evidence found that women who move towards part-time working, in search of better balance, face a long-term penalty on their career progression. Part-time roles are scarce and mostly limited to lower-wage jobs with few advancement opportunities, creating "sticky floors" that hinder women's career growth. While full-time workers see yearly wage increases, part-time workers, most of whom are women, face stagnant pay, worsening the gender pay gap. 

The Transparency Trap 

Among workers in high occupational roles with opportunities for progression, the review found another main driver for gender disparity was a lack of clarity around the standards for recruitment, promotion or pay negotiation. In instances where there are no clear processes or criteria, social cloning comes into play, where decision-makers seek those who are similar to them or who fit the ‘ideal worker’ model. This particularly disadvantages women, as most of this occurs in male-dominated networks, that women struggle to access. This is particularly true of wage earnings, where a lack of transparency around pay makes it difficult for women to know how much they are earning in relation to their male peers.   

Steps to address the barriers 

• Increase Transparency- Implement transparent and formal processes, combined with senior oversight to reduce gender bias.  

• Standardised Promotion Processes: Standardise and clarify promotion processes—such as formal career planning, clear salary standards, and defined job ladders. Evaluate candidates in pairs or groups to focus on important factors like performance data and minimise instinctive judgment.  
  
  

 Destigmatize Part-Time and Flexible Work:  

• Demonstrate ongoing top-down commitment to supporting part-time and flexible workers.  

• Encourage senior role models to share their experiences of balancing work and family life or working part-time.  

 Support line managers:  

• Train line managers to effectively support flexible and part-time workers is crucial.  
• Develop case studies showcasing successful line management of part-time employees.  
• Provide training for part-time or flexible staff to help them manage their workloads, enabling them to train their own managers in the process.