The Broken Rung

Women around the world do extremely well when it comes to their education. They graduate at higher rates than men do and have higher average GPAs. But then a strange thing happens: Upon entering the workforce, they immediately lose their advantage. When the first promotions come around, the slide continues—for every 100 men who are promoted to manager, only 87 women and 73 women of color get promoted.

This is what McKinsey senior partners Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and María del Mar Martínez call "the broken rung," and its effects compound throughout women''s careers, causing women to fall behind at the start and keeping them from catching up. In this groundbreaking book, the authors reveal the problem's underlying cause: while about half of a person''s lifetime earnings come from education and half from experience, men get more value from their experience than women do. As the authors show, it is also here, in one's experience, that the solution lies: How can women build their "experience capital" to level the playing field and maximize their earning potential?

Based on over a decade of research, conversations with more than 50 remarkable leaders, and their own experiences as senior partners and as the first three consecutive chief diversity and inclusion officers for McKinsey, the authors weave data on the potential pitfalls across a career with inspiring and instructive stories of women who have climbed over the broken rung by using strategies that increased their experience capital.

Leaders and companies must do more to address structural gender inequalities in the workplace—but you don't have to wait. The Broken Rung is your guide, right now, for moving up the corporate ladder and reaching your full potential at work.

About the Author

Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and Maria del Mar Martinez are friends, colleagues, and passionate advocates for advancing women in business and society. They are senior partners at McKinsey & Company, supporting clients in different industries and geographies. Each has served as McKinsey's chief diversity and inclusion officer.