Why do women lag behind in career advancement despite equal ambition? McKinsey’s latest book, The Broken Rung: When the career ladder breaks for women—and how they can succeed in spite of it, reveals the systemic barriers that hinder their first promotion—creating a gap that lasts a lifetime.
It also highlights the concept of “experience capital.” Half of lifetime earnings come from the education and skills you bring to your first job, but the other half, on average, is based on the skills that you develop at subsequent jobs. Because of the broken rung, women are not getting their fair share of the second half of that experience capital, the chance to build skills systematically, and gain greater earning power.
Written by McKinsey senior partners Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and María del Mar Martínez, The Broken Rung is rooted in a decade of Human Capital and Women in the Workplace research. It combines data-based insights, practical strategies, and inspiring stories from more than 40 women on how to overcome these challenges.
“The concept of the broken rung starts much earlier than the glass ceiling, and it affects women from all walks of life,” says María. “That’s why we collected stories from people of all backgrounds—not only CEOs—who had to make a lot of choices and changes throughout their careers.”
Kweilin adds, “The stories breathe life into the book. The point of publishing this book is to make women more aware of some of the pivotal moments across their career before they happen, share some of the unwritten rules we wish we had known, and give women guidance that they can use to accelerate their career.”
So how can women move past the broken rung? Here are some key strategies from the book.
1. Choose a company, not just a job
Your career trajectory is not just shaped by your role; it’s shaped by the culture and opportunities within your company. Choosing an organization that excels in its industry and promotes learning will enable you to acquire experience capital more effectively than having a good manager.
To identify such an organization, look for specific metrics—not vague buzzwords—on company training; review what external sources and current employees say about the culture; and research the executive team’s values and leadership styles. For example, when Stephanie Carullo, Box’s former chief operating officer, was looking for her first role out of university, IBM’s leading training program caught her eye. She joined IBM and it helped her build skills that she credits to much of her career success today.
The Broken Rung
The broken rung: a phenomenon even more pervasive than the glass ceiling in holding women back from career success. This book explains it and gives you strategies for how to overcome it and fulfill your potential.
2. Start strong with a line role
Choosing a line role—one that’s core to the business—over a staff role early on can greatly affect a career trajectory. To determine if a position is a line role, consider if it involves driving revenue or managing profits and losses. This can vary depending on the industry: a publicist at a PR firm is a line role because the firm makes money from public relations, whereas a PR executive at a technology firm is a staff position as the company’s primary revenue comes from technology.
Both staff and line roles are essential to business, but workers who start in line roles typically earn more than support roles, hold more power, and have greater opportunities to advance. They also have more chances to shift into staff roles later, whereas staff employees have fewer opportunities to explore line roles.
When Jenny Abramson applied to the Washington Post, she had a background in the public sector and consulting. The president told her that understanding how the company made money would help her perform well—advice that changed the course of her career. She took a job as a sales representative, which felt like an odd move at the time. However, her progression through line roles helped her become more comfortable with financial matters and negotiation, equipping her to later run two large organizations and launch start-ups, including Washington Post Live, the newspaper’s live event platform.
Line roles can provide faster career acceleration and leadership opportunities over time.
Women are as ambitious as men to rise. But they shouldn’t feel limited by where they came from. This book is for everyone—including men—who wants to ensure a more equitable world of work. The benefits will help organizations perform at a higher level, as well.
3. Don’t be afraid of bold moves
Starting over in a different industry or occupation may be scary, but it’s one of the best ways to maximize experience capital. Moving to another job will naturally involve learning new skills, and doing this sooner rather than later allows more time to apply them.
Holland Morris, a full-time teacher, loved her job but needed a second one to make ends meet. The overwhelming workload left her feeling disillusioned and burned out. She revamped her résumé and applied for a corporate role as a learning and content specialist. By highlighting her transferable skills, she secured the position and gained a 50 percent pay raise, enabling her to focus on one job while continuing to hone her teaching skills.
When making a bold move, reach for a role with many new or different skills and/or in a different industry, and craft a narrative that reframes early career moves as learning opportunities for subsequent positions.
4. Tech up to thrive in tomorrow’s world
Technology is integral to every occupation, making it challenging to build a strong career without tech skills. This trend means that women, who are often underrepresented in tech roles, risk missing out on opportunities to maximize their experience capital.
Even non-tech professionals can expand their career potential by developing digital fluency. As a child, Karlie Kloss was passionate about math and science, but her life took a surprising turn when she was scouted by a modeling agent at a mall. Even though she became one of the top 30 models of the 2000s, she knew she wanted to explore beyond the runway. After meeting with start-up founders who were transforming entire industries, she realized they all had one thing in common; they not only had big ideas but also possessed the technology skills to execute on them—they knew how to code. In 2015, she signed up for a coding boot camp, and her new tech skills allowed her to expand her career, become the owner of i-D magazine, and found Kode with Klossy—a nonprofit dedicated to equipping girls and nonbinary teens with tech and coding skills.
AI and digital skills, programming, analytics, tech design, and research can help women from all career backgrounds advance their professional journeys. Consider setting aside 10 percent of your workweek—about four to five hours—to develop these skills through continuous learning or online courses and explore tech or tech-adjacent roles within your organization.
Are you experiencing a “broken rung” moment in your career? Share your experience or explore the book to uncover strategies that can help you rise.