Female Leaders Are Leaving Their Jobs at Alarming Rates

Female leaders are leaving their companies at the highest rate ever recorded, and the gap between women and men in senior roles leaving their jobs is the largest it’s ever been. That’s according to new research from LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co., which started tracking these figures in 2015. “Let’s be clear: Women aren’t saying they don’t want to work,” Lareina Yee, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co., said. “They’re breaking up with companies because they’re confident they will get an opportunity to advance somewhere else, which is something we haven’t seen before ... it really speaks to the fact that loyalty has its limits.” The study, which surveyed 22,000 women and 18,000 men, found that it’s increasingly important for women to work at companies that prioritize their professional development, flexibility, and well-being. Diversity, equity, and inclusion were also top priorities for women, so much so that they’re comfortable leaving organizations that don’t share their values. “It’s a disastrous situation ... you’re not promoting enough women into the leadership ranks, and now you have more women leaving leadership roles,” LeanIn’s cofounder and CEO Rachel Thomas said. “In a world where women remain dramatically underrepresented in senior leadership, those two problems together create a pretty awful one-two punch for companies trying to hold on to women leaders.”