Behind the third edition: Advancing the leadership gender equity conversation

By Priscila Pereira, Director of Research & Innovation, Shape Talent

Summary / Key takeaways

This blog unpacks the latest Three Barriers® research on advancing gender equity in leadership. The third edition of the paper draws on 95+ studies and insights from 7,500+ women across Europe to show how societal, organisational, and personal barriers combine to limit women’s leadership progression. Here, we explore what’s new in the research, why it matters, and how organisations can act – through flexible-first job design, inclusive leadership, structured sponsorship, and bias-free systems. As global gender parity timelines slow, this edition offers a data-driven blueprint for boards and HR leaders ready to accelerate measurable change.

When we published the first Three Barriers® paper over a decade ago, our goal was simple: make the invisible barriers to career progression for women, visible. Since then, the world has changed – pandemics, policy reversals, geopolitical shocks, AI disruption and with each shift, the terrain for women and marginalised genders in leadership has moved beneath our feet. This third edition is our most ambitious response to that changing reality: sharper in its analysis, broader in its evidence base, and clearer about what must happen next.

What makes this edition different

Two things set Edition 3 apart:

• Depth of evidence. We drew on 95+ references, spanning global datasets, cross-disciplinary studies, and lived-experience research.
• Scale of lived voices. It’s grounded in primary data from 7,500+ women across Europe, whose stories animate and challenge the literature at every turn.

Those two pillars, rigour and voice, allowed us to test, refine, and validate our Three Barriers® Model (Societal, Organisational, Personal) and to show how these barriers interact, compound, and shift at the intersections of race, disability, age, and LGBTQ+ identities.

Why a third edition and why now

Progress isn’t linear. In 2016, the World Economic Forum estimated 83 years to global gender parity. By 2024, that number had stretched to 134 years. Meanwhile, the #MeToo movement changed conversations; Covid-19 changed realities; and policy rollbacks in multiple regions changed the baseline of rights and protections. We needed an edition that could hold paradox: the genuine gains and the sobering reversals.

It was also important to ensure an intersectional frame – because barriers don’t arrive single-file. They stack.

What we learned (and why it matters)

• Societal norms still script careers. From gendered expectations to unequal unpaid work, norms continue to shape options and outcomes. The “double burden” is not a metaphor; it’s a time budget – and it shows up in participation, progression, and health.
• Organisations still reward the always-on worker as the ideal worker which in turn defines leadership potential inequitably. That ideal is neither inclusive nor correlated with better leadership. When combined with unequal care loads and safety concerns for LGBTQ+ employees in certain geographies, it becomes a progression filter.
• Sponsorship beats mentorship for impact if designed and executed well. Many companies run mentoring at scale. Fewer run sponsorship with clear criteria, senior accountability, and equitable access. Our data shows that gap widening at the intersections, especially for Black and disabled women.
• Microaggressions continue to drain capacity and intent to stay. “Onlyness” (being the only woman, or the only person of your identity, in the room) multiplies exposure to everyday sexism and bias. The result: lower psychological safety, higher attrition risk, and lost leadership potential.
• The personal isn’t really personal. Confidence, negotiation, and likeability penalties are often framed as individual deficits. Our findings reinforce that they are systemic responses to gendered and racialised norms. Change the system, and the “personal” barriers are removed.

How the model evolved

Our data analysis has made it clear that the Societal, Organisational, and Personal barriers operate in feedback loops, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that holds women back.

• Societal narratives – such as “men take charge; women take care” – shape how work is designed and who is seen as “ready now” for stretch assignments or senior roles.
• Organisational norms – like the expectation of 24/7 responsiveness, presenteeism to access informal networks, or geographic mobility as a marker of ambition – further privilege a narrow “ideal worker” profile. Women, disproportionately carrying unpaid care, often adapt their personal strategies just to stay in employment: self-censoring in meetings, conforming to limiting gender norms, or even self-deselecting from advancement opportunities.
• These personal strategies and outcomes – for example, lower negotiation success caused by backlash against women who advocate for themselves – are then misread as innate traits. This misinterpretation feeds the false belief that women are inherently better suited to caregiving than to leadership, reinforcing the loop and perpetuating bias.

With women and other marginalised genders representing half the world’s potential, yet still constrained by outdated assumptions, organisations must ask themselves: Can we really afford to keep designing work that sidelines half of humanity? If the ideal worker is someone who delivers impact, not sheer output or presenteeism, then it’s time to redesign work itself – for all genders, including men who no longer fit the traditional mould, those with caring responsibilities, ageing parents, disability and beyond.

From evidence to action: what organisations can do now

1. Make flexible-first the default – including at senior levels. Embed flexibility into job design, rather than leaving it to ad-hoc manager discretion. Ensure talent reviews don’t favour the ‘traditional ideal worker’ so that all talent is equally considered[PP8]
2. Review your policies through a life-stage and gender-equity lens. Life stages affect men and women differently, so every policy should be assessed for how well it meets the needs of all genders. For example, returner policies are critical to ensure women in family-forming life s are not penalised – helping them re-enter without losing access to performance reviews, career conversations, or advancement opportunities. Similarly, our evidence shows that even perimenopausal women – often as young as 40, and sometimes younger – face significant barriers to career progression. Workplaces must provide targeted support to help them stay and thrive in leadership roles. This is about more than flexible working; it’s about redesigning work itself to support every stage of life and keep female talent on the leadership path.talent on the leadership path.talent on the leadership path.talent on the leadership path.
3. Close the sponsorship gap to accelerate balanced representation in leadership. Stand-up formal sponsorship for underrepresented women, with transparent selection, senior accountability, and visibility-rich assignments.
4. Debias the system upstream. Redesign hiring, promotion, and pay processes; audit outcomes by intersection; publish progress. Introduce ranks and gender equity dashboards so leaders can compare their impact and compete with each other.
5. Tackle microaggressions with structure. Establish clear policies, accessible reporting mechanisms, and invest in active-bystander training to ensure accountability. Addressing microaggressions is a critical step toward reshaping workplaces to be truly safe and inclusive for everyone.
6. Build inclusive leadership as a core competency. Assess, train, measure, reward inclusive leadership.
7. Adopt a right-to-disconnect policy. Model it visibly from the top. The right to disconnect is a powerful “cultural hack” that helps dismantle the outdated ideal-worker mindset – the notion that value comes from constant availability rather than meaningful impact.
8. Introduce an intersectional risk-spotlight audit: investigate the worst workplace experiences through an intersectional lens, redesign those processes using universal-design principles, and prioritise policies for the most marginalised – because when you solve barriers for those most excluded, everyone benefits.

What’s next

Our aim isn’t another report on a digital shelf. It’s a working blueprint for CEOs and HR leaders. The road to parity may be long, but it doesn’t have to be slow. With evidence-based interventions and collective commitment, organisations can collapse timelines – turning “someday” targets into this-decade outcomes.

If your organisation is ready to move from good intentions to measurable progress, we’d love to partner with you on designing- and delivering- the change. [add contact details]

Access the full paper here.

FAQs

Q. Why was a third edition of the Three Barriers® paper released?
A. The third edition responds to major global shifts – pandemics, policy reversals, AI disruption – that have changed the landscape for women in leadership. It updates the evidence and reflects new intersectional challenges in achieving gender equity.

Q. What makes the third edition of the Three Barriers® Model different?
A. Edition 3 combines global research with lived experience. It draws on 95+ studies and data from 7,500+ European women to show how societal, organisational, and personal barriers interact to shape women’s leadership outcomes.

Q. What are the main findings about gender equity in leadership?
A. The research shows that systemic norms, not personal deficits, hold women back. Societal expectations, biased organisational cultures, and microaggressions limit progression -while equitable sponsorship and inclusive leadership drive change.

Q. How can organisations close the gender leadership gap?
A. Organisations can accelerate gender equity by applying the Shape Talent Gender Equity Acceleration Model, which focuses on five key actions:

• Diagnose: Identify barriers and set a clear plan to bridge the gap.
• Align: Integrate equity goals with business strategy and accountability.
• Debias: Remove gender bias from systems, policies, and decision-making.
• Engage: Build an inclusive culture where everyone champions equity and understands that gender balance benefits all employees, not only women.
• Develop: Invest in advancing women into leadership through sponsorship, mentorship, and growth opportunities.