New 2025 data: women want the promotion as much as men do, once they get the same support
Around eighty percent of women report that they want to advance to a higher position. For men, that share rises to 86 percent, according to the same survey. The 2025 Women in the Workplace report, produced by McKinsey and LeanIn, found that this six-point distance disappears entirely when women get the same backing men already enjoy.
For years, the common explanation for why women thin out above the director level was that they simply wanted it less. They opt out, put family first, and are "less ambitious," a phrase used in more talent reviews than anyone would admit under oath. The data points elsewhere. The drive is present at nearly the same rate, and what remains is not a personal trait. It is a reaction to the environment.
Here is where the figures originate.
Each year since 2015, McKinsey and LeanIn have jointly followed American corporations and the people who staff them through the Women in the Workplace research. The 2025 edition asked women and men whether they wanted to move up, then examined what else was true for those who said yes. It is the six-point gap that grabs attention in the headlines. The finding underneath is that among workers reporting equal manager support, sponsorship and encouragement, the gap falls to zero. Because it is a survey and not an experiment, it stops short of demonstrating that backing actually produces ambition. It does show the two move together, and that "women want it less" falls apart among women receiving what men receive. The same study found 31% of entry-level women had a sponsor, compared with 45% of men. Early on, the backing quietly disappears, and that absence is the real problem.
What it looks like inside the meeting room
Imagine sitting in a talent review in downtown Columbus. Picture yourself as a vice president in Columbus weighing candidates for an open SVP post, with a shortlist of three, two of whom are men. A colleague offers that the woman on the list "hasn't really raised her hand," and you happen to know her well. Twice she did speak up, during one-on-one meetings with a manager who simply nodded and changed the subject. The men on the ballot in Columbus never had to lift their hands to speak. Their sponsors raised it for them in rooms exactly like this one. The ambition is the same. The amplification is not. Before the meeting wraps, her candidacy is shadowed by doubt, and the doubt lands on her rather than on the manager who failed to pass her message along.
What this could mean for you
If you have ever been told to "want it more," you were handed the wrong diagnosis, most likely by someone whose own ambition was never questioned. What would close this gap does not originate within you alone. It is a manager who says your name when you are absent, a sponsor who puts you on the slate, and encouragement that arrives before you have to ask. Companies either provide these supports or they leave them out. You can seek them out, but recognize that you are making up for a missing input, not repairing a flaw.
Paths forward
State your aspirations plainly so they cannot be missed. Send your manager a written note saying you would like to be considered for the next director-level role that opens up. Ask what they would need to observe from you before advocating for you, and then request that a senior leader from outside your reporting chain serve as a reference when the shortlist is assembled. In effect, you have manufactured by hand the sponsorship that men often receive without asking.
Among your colleagues in Central Ohio, who is speaking your name when you are out of the room?