The Business
Investigating the Gender Gap in Post-MBA Leadership
The glass ceiling is alive and well, even post-MBA. What must be done to close the gap?
By Laura Lightfinch and Dr Michelle Wieser
In Brief
- Post-MBA, women still encounter a pervasive glass ceiling, facing a growing gender pay gap, fewer promotions and limited access to leadership roles, despite the clear benefits of their advanced education.
- This "broken rung" sees the gender pay gap widen to 17% after five years, with women receiving nearly one fewer promotion, managing half as many staff, and having significantly less budget oversight than men.
- Companies must actively nurture women's career growth beyond initial hiring by implementing clear development plans and fostering an inclusive ecosystem. C-suite leaders are crucial advocates for diverse talent, ensuring equitable progression and retention.
Despite significant benefits to studying an MBA, women and minority graduates continue to face a ceiling when it comes to pay, opportunities and access to leadership positions, according to a 2025 report by the US-based Forté Foundation.
The report reveals that post-MBA, women – especially those from underrepresented minority groups– have a greater distance from their company’s CEO, earn fewer promotions, manage fewer people and hold smaller budgets in addition to a growing gender pay gap.
“Many women are facing challenges to their growth early on. If you don’t get to the managerial rung by a certain time, you’re in a trajectory that looks very different than those who have pushed forward early.”
"If (companies) leave their talent to figure out those plans on their own, they will be faced with an exodus of middle managers who choose to pursue their career goals elsewhere.That’s what we’re seeing in the data."
An MBA Will Boost Salary, But the Gender Pay Gap Will Grow
According to Forté’s latest MBA Outcomes Findings released in 2025, women with an MBA see a salary increase of 55-65% within five years of graduation. However, the gender pay gap grows from the first post-MBA job (6%) to their current role (17%).
“The value of the MBA is not in question,” Forté Foundation CEO Elissa Sangster affirms. “It really does help students advance their careers, but we are tracking several key indicators that impact women’s progress into leadership and underpin this expanding salary gap.”
Of the more than 1,000 participants surveyed, women reported a greater distance from the CEO than their male counterparts, 4.3 levels on average for women, compared to 3.8 to men.
While both genders appear to share a relatively similar distance from their CEO, the gap is deceptive. Women with the same credentials, education and experience still have not risen as high as men.
The small CEO distance gap also hides deeper chasms in day-to-day operations. On average, women received roughly one fewer promotion than men; 1.4 promotions compared to 2.3 for their male counterparts.
Women managed almost half as many staff as well, at 1.6 to 3. They also have significantly less budget oversight, particularly at the high end where twice as many men (12%) as women (6%) oversee a budget of USD $50M or more.
Connecting the dots between the data and the real stories of women MBAs who work with Forté, Sangster sees a clear narrative: “Many women are facing challenges to their growth early on. If you don’t get to the managerial rung by a certain time, you’re in a trajectory that looks very different than those who have pushed forward early.
“Our data shows that men are beginning to gain responsibility, overcome challenges and enter decision-making roles earlier, leading them closer to the CEO with each promotion.”
McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report gave weight to the 'broken rung' as a significant barrier to women’s advancement, stating that “men significantly outnumber women at the managerial level, making it near impossible for companies to support sustained progress at more senior levels”.
However, Sangster feels that the line between these differing paths to progression and the resulting salary gap isn’t always clear to companies working to grow diversity in leadership. Instead, she believes that “companies are focused on top-level balances like everyone in the same role receiving the same pay”.
What isn’t being talked about, however, is “how long it takes women to make that same pay bracket and the challenges they face to progress to the same level. Are hiring managers quantifying those different journeys in measurable ways?”.
Dr Monika Nangia, Director of Student & Academic Services at Durham University in England has travelled across the UK interviewing women leaders in higher education to understand the challenges faced on the path to leadership.
“There is a wealth of data pointing to persistent systemic inequity, but what lies behind the statistics are women who have made several sacrifices to gain a seat at the table. It doesn’t come easy. There is a lot of code switching, isolation and imposter syndrome,” says Dr Nangia.
“When I talk to women leaders, they have had to battle twice as hard to get to the top. Strength and resilience are something they come with, but it takes a toll.”
Lack of Advancement Opportunities Push Women to Leave
Of the women surveyed in Forté’s MBA Outcomes Findings, 53% say there is no process or plan for formal career development or advancement at their workplace.
Women are more likely to leave their company in order to progress with 44% citing a lack of advancement opportunities as the primary reason to leave a job.
For Divya Chaurasia, leaving her job to pursue an MBA felt like the only way to progress. She became one of the first people from her hometown in India to study an MBA abroad and says that mentorship was vital in making this decision.
“It was the first time that a manager had been invested in my growth and was interested in what I wanted to do beyond the work they needed me for. They took my ambitions seriously and advised that I left to study an MBA.” Says Chaurasia
A new MBA graduate from London Business School, Chaurasia says: “Being seen and heard can be a very overlooked idea, but it’s a significant part of providing equal opportunities. When you feel heard and supported, your confidence grows.”
Yet, only 36 percent of women surveyed for the MBA Outcomes Findings list confidence as an attribute contributing to their professional success.
“It’s a tragedy that companies aren’t seeing that as a missed opportunity,” Sangster tells QS Insights Magazine. “From an organisational standpoint, what are you doing to showcase the career options and progression for your talent?
“Are you being methodical and thoughtful about how you grow that talent once you’ve invested the money and time to recruit them? How do you map that journey out for them so you can retain them because many of the MBA graduates participating in this study are concerned about that.”
Preparing Women MBAs to Lead Through Turbulent Realities
As Sangster affirms, the value of business education is not in question. Many of the top business schools have globally recognised leadership schemes and business clubs designed to support women students through networking, mentorship, skills development and advocacy.
For example, Oxford Women’s Leadership Development Programme at Oxford Saïd Business School evolved from a study of women CEOs to help address the barriers women must overcome to pursue their ambitions. The scheme helps women to evaluate methods and resources for leadership, understand how to respond to culture and gender assumptions, and how to recognise leadership potential.
The responsibility of business schools to encourage women to pursue their goals and to support them in building robust plans to achieve them is undeniable, yet Sangster feels that “[higher education] has assumed for too long that if we provide people with these amazing programmes and give them the knowledge and practice they need to be ready for the workforce, that companies will take care of them and help them to grow.”
Sangster says employers must continue that development and support or risk losing such qualified workers.
“If (companies) leave their talent to figure out those plans on their own, they will be faced with an exodus of middle managers who choose to pursue their career goals elsewhere.That’s what we’re seeing in the data.”
Calling All C-suite Champions
In 2025 the percentage of women FTSE 100 directors has grown to 43%, compared to only 12 percent in 2010. Change is happening, but the career aspirations of women seem to peak at director level according to the MBA Outcomes Findings.
The challenge identified by the 30% Club -is getting those women into CEO and chair positions. Sophie Hulm is CEO at Progress Together and sits on the Steering Committee for 30% Club, a global campaign calling for companies around the world to commit to at least 30 percent female representation on their boards and executive leadership teams.
“What's really important is that CEOs and chairs are the advocates for talking about those coming up through the pipeline,” Hulm says, “because it's not just about who we recruit, but who we bring up after us.
“We see that the people who get ahead are those being talked about at the right times in the right places. We also need to ensure that CEOS and chairs are sponsoring a diversity of women with experiences, backgrounds and perspectives that differ to theirs. We know that the more organisations that are representative of society, the better the decision making, innovation, and economic outcomes.”
This is a belief shared by Divya Chaurasia, who in addition to being a member of the Women in Business Club at LBS, serves on the Laidlaw board, where she leads the mentorship charter.
Chaurasia says the greatest impact comes from leaders who not only share their achievements to inspire other women, but who also nurture and support them throughout their journeys.
“Companies must look beyond quotas and numbers to build an ecosystem that makes room for all kinds of leaders. I want to see leaders who not only act as orators but who nurture people at a granular level and try to understand the different journeys that people travel to make it to the top. I feel that that gap still exists.”