Career stagnation at entry level hinders women’s rise to C-suite in Nigeria- McKinsey

The latest Women in the Workplace 2025 report by McKinsey & Company has revealed that most women enter formal employment later than their male counterparts or remain in entry-level roles for extended periods, resulting in career stagnation and less representation at the C-suite level.

This gap indicates an opportunity to identify how to remove women’s barriers to promotion into management and senior leadership roles.

The report sheds light on the persistent challenges facing women in formal employment across India, Nigeria, and Kenya, and recommends a call to action for policymakers, employers, and industry leaders to address entry-level barriers and build more inclusive pathways to leadership.

According to the report, women occupy only 28 to 29 out of every 100 senior executive roles. This imbalance is attributed to a narrow pipeline at the entry level, which continues to restrict the flow of female talent into senior leadership positions.

Globally, women make up half of the working-age population, yet their representation in formal employment, particularly in leadership, lags significantly. Some estimates suggest that women hold fewer than one-third of leadership roles in the formal sector worldwide.

The analysis of the report draws on data from 324 organisations employing approximately 1.4 million people across the three countries. It highlights systemic barriers that hinder women’s advancement and underscores the urgent need for structural reforms to enable equitable career progression.

This report focuses on formal employment, as around 90 per cent of employed women in India, Nigeria, and Kenya work in the informal sector, according to a 2019 report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Read also: Businesses need policies that support gender diversity to drive women’s leadership representation – Osuhor.

How women are represented across sectors

Based on comments cited from persons interviewed in the report, women in Nigeria face persistent barriers to entering formal employment, particularly in male-dominated sectors such as energy, engineering, and technical services. These early obstacles create a limited pool of female candidates, which in turn restricts their progression into senior roles.

As an entry-level employee in an energy company, I noted, “During my fourth-year internship, women and men were always segregated to do
different work. Anything that has to do with field work, they would leave the girls behind to work in the office because of the belief that women are not meant to do some things.”

Recruitment biases also persist, as a human resource (HR) professional in an extraction company admitted his reluctance to hire women for technical roles due to entrenched gender norms. A HR professional in an extraction company said, “When recruiting, there are some roles that I wouldn’t be inclined to give to women, especially in engineering and technical services, because they are male-dominated.”

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Despite these challenges, women who do enter formal employment and benefit from transparent promotion systems often advance steadily.

A hospitality manager shared, “Men and women go through the same process which are clear deliverables and standard procedures.”

Supportive mentorship, particularly from male colleagues, plays a crucial role in women’s career growth. A manager in a healthcare organisation recalled, “My male bosses defended me when others questioned my competence. However, women still report needing to outperform male peers to gain recognition, especially in fields like surgery”.

However, the legal sector stands out for its near-parity in female representation across seniority levels.

Between the entry-level and the senior vice president level, women’s representation ranges from 43 per cent to 5 per cent. Women in the legal sector highlighted support, mentorship, and sponsorship received from senior-level colleagues as key drivers of their advancement in the sector.

They cited fair promotion metrics and merit-based advancement as key enablers. As one partner put it, “Even when clients preferred speaking to men, senior colleagues would say, ‘She’s capable.’”

Read also: Only 33% of entry-level roles in Nigeria’s formal sector are held by women – McKinsey.

McKinsey urges Nigerian employers to step up gender diversity efforts

The McKinsey report has urged employers in Nigeria to strengthen gender diversity through targeted initiatives and stronger board oversight.

According to the report, boards should routinely review gender representation metrics covering recruitment, promotion and attrition, in order to track progress and support executive leadership in meeting diversity targets. It further advised that boards benchmark their performance against national and industry standards, while engaging management on the effectiveness of existing policies.

The report also called on senior leaders to go beyond monitoring representation by setting clear improvement goals and integrating gender diversity into performance reviews. Leadership incentives, it stressed, should be tied to progress on diversity outcomes.

McKinsey identified four pillars critical to advancing gender diversity: collaboration, data, accountability and culture. Senior leaders were encouraged to work closely with human resources and culture teams to embed inclusive policies across organisations.

The report further recommended fostering a workplace culture where employees feel valued, supported and empowered to succeed.

Read also: Amandla Ooko-Ombaka, Partner, McKinsey & Company

The gap between policy intent and actual execution

Many organisations in India, Nigeria, and Kenya have made progress in adopting foundational policies that support gender diversity, such as those addressing safety, security, and bias mitigation, which the report noted.

However, a significant gap remains between policy intent and actual execution. This presents an opportunity for companies to move beyond symbolic commitments and take concrete steps that lead to measurable impact.

The survey, therefore, highlights that while basic policies are widely in place, more impactful initiatives such as mentorship, sponsorship, flexible working arrangements, and family care support remain underutilised.

To address this, organisations are urged to place greater emphasis on accountability, ensuring that diversity efforts are not only well-intentioned but effectively realised.