Gender equity in leadership: Three Barriers® Third Edition- Factsheet

Overview 

A concise, evidence‑led summary of the systemic, organisational and personal barriers that hinder progression to leadership for women and marginalised genders, with practical steps for employers. 

This Third Edition, published in 2025, responds to a changing landscape - from pandemics to policy reversals, AI disruption and geopolitical shocks - that has shifted the terrain for women and marginalised genders in leadership. It is sharper in analysis, broader in evidence, and clearer about what must happen next. 

What’s new 

• Depth of evidence: Draws on 95+ references across global datasets, cross‑disciplinary studies and lived‑experience research. 
• Scale of lived voices: Grounded in primary data from 7,500+ women across Europe whose stories challenge the literature at every turn. 
• Demonstrates how societal, organisational and personal barriers interact in feedback loops, compounding at the intersections of race, disability, age and LGBTQ+ identities. 

Key takeaways 

• The global parity timeline has slipped from 83 years (2016) to 134 years (2024). 
• Crises (pandemics, conflicts, policy reversals) tend to intensify gender inequality and deprioritise gender issues. 
• Organisations still reward an outdated ‘ideal worker’ model of 24/7 availability and presenteeism, which disproportionately filters out women with higher unpaid‑care loads and LGBTQ+ staff in less‑safe geographies. 

Why it matters (business and people outcomes) 

• Wider, more diverse leadership pipelines correlate with better decision‑making and innovation.   
• Failure to address barriers increases turnover, absence, legal/compliance risk and harms employer brand.   
• Intersectional inequities (race/ethnicity, disability, class, age, LGBTQ+) compound barriers and widen pay and progression gaps.   
• Progress isn’t linear: despite movements such as #MeToo, setbacks from Covid‑19 and policy roll‑backs have eroded gains. 

“There is no such thing as a single‑issue struggle because we do not live single‑issue lives.”- Audre Lorde 

Core evidence (snapshot) 

• Stereotypes & role expectations: 53% of women in European corporates report stereotype‑related barriers; higher for marginalised groups.   
• Care & unpaid work: 39% face barriers due to primary caregiving; 35% report challenges navigating the “double burden” of paid and unpaid work (42% Black women; 41% Asian women).   
• Political representation gap: Women hold ~27% of parliamentary seats globally; representation of women of colour and LGBTQ+ people is especially low.   
• Workplace systems: Lower access to stretch roles, sponsorship and influential networks; flexible working often carries career stigma.   
• Culture & bias: ‘Always‑on’ norms, microaggressions and harassment persist; women of colour and disabled women report higher rates.   
• Personal penalties: Confidence perceptions, negotiation backlash (50% overall; higher for Black, Asian and disabled women) and the likeability penalty.   
• Sponsorship vs mentorship: Sponsorship drives progression when it has clear criteria, senior accountability and equitable access - yet remains scarce compared with mentoring. 

Insights from lived experience 

• Societal norms still script careers: Gendered expectations and unequal unpaid work limit time and options; the double burden affects participation, progression and health.   
• ‘Always‑on’ ideal‑worker culture: Rewards constant availability rather than true impact; acts as a progression filter and raises safety concerns for LGBTQ+ employees in certain geographies.   
• Microaggressions drain capacity and intent to stay: “Onlyness” (being the only woman or the only person of a certain identity in the room) multiplies exposure to bias, lowering psychological safety and raising attrition risk.   
• The personal isn’t purely personal: Confidence, negotiation and likeability penalties reflect systemic bias; changing workplace norms improves these ‘personal’ metrics. 

How the model evolved 

Earlier editions described the barriers as three separate forces. The latest edition highlights feedback loops:  

• Societal narratives such as “men take charge; women take care”, influence how work is designed and who is deemed ‘ready now’. 
• Organisational norms such as 24/7 responsiveness, presenteeism to access networks, geographic mobility as ambition marker, privilege a narrow ideal‑worker profile. 
• Personal adaptations such as self‑censoring in meetings, self‑deselecting from opportunities, lower negotiation success due to backlash, thare misinterpreted as innate traits, reinforcing stereotypes and biased feedback loops. 
• Recognising these loops enables leaders to break them through policy (right‑to‑disconnect, equitable parental leave), process (debias pay and promotion), and culture (active‑bystander protocols, zero‑tolerance of microaggressions, psychologically safe workplaces). 

Good practice - what employers should do 

Design for modern families 

• Make flexible‑first the default (all roles, including leaders); implement a right‑to‑disconnect. 
• Provide part‑time leadership, job‑share and remote pathways. 
• Equalise and normalise parental leave for all parents, with senior role‑modelling. 
• Review policies through a life‑stage and gender‑equity lens, including targeted support for returners and perimenopausal women to stay and thrive in leadership. 

Fix systems rather than ‘fixing’ people 

• Run pay audits (gender, race/ethnicity, disability) and publish progress. 
• Embed intersectional impact assessments and a risk‑spotlight audit for most‑marginalised groups into every policy/process. 
• Apply universal‑design & accessibility principles to workplace, tech and meetings. 
• Debias hiring & promotion (clear criteria, structured interviews, calibrated reviews). 
• Track access to opportunities (stretch roles, budgets, sponsorship) via leadership dashboards. 
• Strengthen anti‑harassment policies with anonymous reporting, clear investigation routes and active‑bystander training. 

Build inclusive leadership & accountability 

• Define inclusive‑leadership competencies, assess and reward them. 
• Establish structured sponsorship for under‑represented women; set representation targets and hold leaders accountable. 
• Provide talent‑acceleration programmes addressing diagnosed barriers; resource ERGs and safe spaces. 

Roles and responsibilities (HR, L&D and line leaders) 

• Executive team / Board: Champion the change, resource interventions, own progress metrics.   
• HR / EDI: Own policy design, data, governance and reporting; steward intersectional impact assessments.   
• L&D: Build inclusive‑leadership capability; provide sponsorship skills and active‑bystander training.   
• Line leaders: Model flexible‑first behaviours; run fair processes; sponsor under‑represented talent; hold regular career conversations. 

European legal and policy context  

UK: Equality Act 2010 (protected characteristics), Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act) 2023 (strengthened sexual-harassment duties), and gender-pay-gap reporting obligations. 

EU-wide: Employers operating across the EU should align with the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, which is supported by key directives and initiatives: 

• Work-life Balance Directive (2019/1158/EU): establishes minimum standards for paid paternity leave, carers’ leave and flexible-working rights for parents and carers. 

• Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970/EU): requires pay-gap reporting, disclosure of pay ranges in job adverts, and gives workers the right to request pay-level information. 

• Directive on Gender Balance on Corporate Boards (2022/2381/EU): mandates that by mid-2026 listed companies must achieve at least 40 % of non-executive director posts or 33 % of all director posts held by the under-represented gender. 

• Employers should routinely review UK, EU and national-level regulations to ensure compliance.  

Implementation checklist 

Policy: Flexible‑first written into all job ads and role profiles; right‑to‑disconnect policy active and monitored; policies encouraging and supporting paternity leave in place.   

Process: Clear promotion criteria; panel composition reviewed; annual bias audit completed.   

Data: Quarterly dashboards on stretch‑role allocation, sponsorship and development spend by intersection.   

Reporting: Annual publication of pay‑gap progress and action plan.   

Culture: Active‑bystander programme in place; zero‑tolerance for harassment and microaggressions.   

Leadership: Inclusive‑competency framework embedded in performance management; targets with named, accountable owners.   

Accessibility: Universal‑design standards adopted for offices, digital tools and meetings.   

Support: ERGs resourced; safe‑reporting channels tested and trusted. 

Useful resources and further reading 

• Shape Talent, 2025 research: Three Barriers® to women's progression (3rd ed.)  
• Updated Three Barriers® infographic
• Shape Talent, 2024 EU report: Three Barriers to women's advancement in European corporates

About the authors and limitations  

Authors: Sharon Peake (Founder & CEO, Shape Talent), Helena Wacko and Dr Priscila Pereira (Director of Research and Product Innovation, Shape Talent) 

Disclaimer: As with much research, the literature base from which this research is drawn skews to the Global North; terminology used in our report reflects the terminology used in the source research; we use the term “disabled women” instead of “women with a disability” in accordance with the social‑model of disability. 

Last updated: October 2025 

Contact: Shape Talent – partnering with CEOs, executive teams and HR and EDI leaders to turn evidence‑based insights on gender equity into measurable progress.

www.shapetalent.com  |  info@shapetalent.com