Twelve years after Sheryl Sandberg’s best-selling book was published lean forward It sparked a workplace movement urging women to push for promotions, but many have now given up. A new survey by LeanIn.org, the nonprofit Sandberg founded with McKinsey & Company in 2013 around the time of the book’s publication, shows a significant decline in women’s ambition.
LeanIn.org’s annual “Women in the Workplace” report released on Tuesday (December 9), based on data from 124 companies in the United States and Canada, found for the first time that women are less willing to be promoted than men. In 2025, 80% of women will seek promotion, compared with 86% of men. In previous years, the target levels were consistent. Last year, for example, the ratio for both was 70%.
“We do see this ambition gap, but only when women don’t get the opportunities and support they need,” Sandberg said in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday.
She said the gap stems from ongoing barriers at every career stage. Two in 10 companies now say women’s advancement is not a priority or even non-existent — a number that rises to three in 10 for women of color. About half of the companies that previously contributed to the report also no longer prioritize advancing women, Sandberg said.
Day after day, these obstacles are reflected in how ambition is viewed and rewarded. Women are 30% more likely than men to be labeled “aggressive” when asking for a pay rise or promotion, and men in senior roles are 70% more likely to be selected for leadership training than their female colleagues.
Sandberg thinks the solution is simple: “Standardize your processes. Develop universal standards in advance that everyone agrees on.”
The report also points to the impact of returning to office tasks post-COVID-19. A quarter of companies surveyed now offer fewer remote and hybrid options, and these policies disproportionately impact women, who make up about two-thirds of U.S. caregivers. Most women who work remotely face stigma for using flexibility benefits, while men typically do not.
Gender diversity programs are also shrinking. Nearly one in six companies has reduced formal sponsorship of leadership and scaled back programs designed for women. The cuts come amid the Trump administration’s rollback of DEI efforts and the rise of fertility policies that encourage women to have more children.
Sandberg said that as rhetoric promoting stay-at-home mothers grows in popularity, the data does not support the idea that staying home is inherently better for families. She added that those expectations “never really went away.” Even now, she said, “I really don’t think we ever adequately encouraged… women to lead as much as men?” The answer is no.
“If you have the ability to be a stay-at-home spouse and a stay-at-home parent, whether you’re a man or a woman, and you want to do that, I think it can be a very fulfilling job,” Sandberg said. “Most women don’t have that option.”
Finally, Sandberg said expanding leadership opportunities for women is an economic imperative. “This is a question of economic productivity,” she said. “Do we want to get the best out of our people?”
