973: INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP: The “Ambition Gap” is Gaslighting Women. Again.

Episode notes

The Lean In and McKinsey & Company Women in the Workplace 2025 report claims that, for the first time, women are less likely than men to want a promotion, stating that 80% of women want to be promoted to the next level, compared to 86% of men. They label this development an “ ambition gap ”, stating that women are currently less ambitious than men. This label is wildly inaccurate, deeply offensive, and grossly irresponsible. Calling these findings an “ambition gap” is strategic reframing that places blame back on women, per usual, while letting broken systems (and the power players who uphold them) off the hook. When powerful institutions confuse correlation with causation and misdiagnose the problem like this, women pay the price. Again. These kinds of reports shape policy, leadership decisions, funding priorities, and how women are talked about at work. This label is not ok. It is harmful. The report assumes ambition is singular and linear, defined by traditional corporate ascent, and treats women’s slower advancement or disengagement as a personal failure instead of a rational response to inequitable systems and poor resource allocation.