THIS QUARTER’S PAGE-TURNERS ON BUSINESS AND BEYOND

Top of your college class? Check. Five years of mentorship and relevant experience on your resume? Check. Still stuck in an entry-level job while your male colleagues advance? You’re not alone.

That initial career setback—the phenomenon that impedes women’s progress on the career ladder when they miss their first promotion—is known as the “broken rung.” It hinders women from acquiring on-the-job skills, earning power, and future promotions. Indeed, while 48 percent of women begin their careers in entry-level positions, fewer than one in three make it to the C-suite.

In this edition of Readers & Leaders, McKinsey Senior Partners Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and María del Mar Martínez share highlights from their upcoming book, The Broken Rung: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women—and How They Can Succeed in Spite of It (Harvard Business Review). The book outlines the professional challenges that women face in their career journeys and what they can do to overcome them. Read on to learn more about the broken rung and how women can find success in moving up the corporate ladder.

Look out for our next edition of Readers & Leaders—now a quarterly newsletter—in spring 2025.

IT BEARS REPEATING

“If you join a company that invests in you—in  training, developing, and in giving you opportunities for mobility—you start developing that experience capital early in your career so that you have more time to accumulate those learnings over the journey.”

— María del Mar Martínez, McKinsey senior partner, in a January edition of Author Talks

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Why is the broken rung so pervasive, and what can women do to transcend it? Explore our eight-part video series, How women can climb over the broken rung, to learn more.

TURN BACK THE PAGE

The barriers to advancement that women face aren’t just a women’s issue—allyship, investment in women employees, and valuing “feminine” leadership skills can all help overcome these challenges. Read these interviews to learn more.

1. The fight for fairness at work
2. How working women can shatter the glass ceiling
3. Lead like a girl
4. Where are the women who are missing from the workforce?

BOOKMARK THIS

McKinsey on Lives & Legacies

As National She’s the BOSS Day and International Women’s Day are fast approaching, learn more about influential women leaders and their global impact.

BUSINESS BESTSELLERS TOP

8

Catch up on the latest and greatest reads for the month. Explore business bestsellers, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by Circana; the full selection is available on McKinsey on Books.

business overall

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

BUSINESS hardcover

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

economics

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell (Hachette Book Group)

decision-making

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
(Hachette Book Group)

organizational behavior

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

workplace culture

Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter (Simon & Schuster)

COMPUTERS AND AI

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari (Random House)

sustainability

Venture Meets Mission: Aligning People, Purpose, and Profit to Innovate and Transform Society by Arun Gupta, Gerard George, and Thomas J. Fewer (Two Rivers Distribution)

If you’d like to propose a book or author for #McKAuthorTalks, please email us at [email protected]. Due to the high volume of requests, we will respond only to those being considered.

—Edited by Emily Adeyanju, editor, Carolinas

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