Seven Ways to Promote and Support Women in Leadership Roles

Empowering women to lead – from Fortune 500 C-suites to Main Street – brings a host of research-backed benefits to improve company culture, enhance corporate reputation, diversify corporate board decision-making, and even boost a company’s financial performance.

So, if the benefits of women in leadership are so positive, why is it taking so long for women to rise up in the ranks? And, more importantly, what can the printing industry do to move the needle upward and onward in relation to women in leadership roles?

The answer is multi-dimensional and worthy of strategic discussion. To get the conversation (and action) started, here are seven ways your company can help promote and support women in print leadership roles.

1. Highlight Female Leaders

Representation matters. I hear time and again from millennial and Gen Z women that seeing a female serving in a leadership position (or not) can make or break whether they will even apply to a job at a company, not to mention accept an offer. They want tangible evidence that your company is a place where they can grow and succeed.

Highlighting female leaders can be as simple as ensuring they are pictured or listed on a company website or spotlighted in employee communications. Seeing herself reflected in senior leadership roles will give that new eager female employee the confidence to volunteer for “reach” tasks or leadership training, because she sees proof that taking risks can lead to career advancement in your company. And don’t limit these highlights to the very top of your organizational chart. Showcase women who are leading in a variety of roles and functions at your company.

In a predominately male-led industry like print, it’s vital for women to see and believe that progression is possible on each step of the career ladder.

2. Zero In On the ‘First Rung’

Speaking of the corporate ladder analogy, there’s new research showing the very first rung is crucial to developing the next pipeline of talented female leaders. Sadly, a McKinsey & Company study has labeled the fate many women face at this milestone as “the broken rung” — a beginning barrier to leadership ascension from which it becomes hard to recover. The study found that for every 100 men promoted in the workforce in 2024, only 81 women were promoted. This disparity deepens as men climb up the ladder at a faster rate of promotion than women for the rest of their parallel careers.

What can your company do to repair the broken rung for its talented female employees? Reviewing HR policies and management training is a good place to start.

Ensure performance reviews and promotion eligibility requirements are de-biased for gender. Ways to do this include: defining clear evaluation criteria, offering bias training for evaluators, or using a diverse slate of candidates for promotion opportunities. (Not sure where to start? Look to an industry trade association, like PRINTING United Alliance, or HR best practices guide for help.)

Finally, be sure to provide women in your next gen talent pipeline the opportunity to explore both staff and line positions. Staff positions include functions like HR, legal, and IT that play supportive roles in a company, while line positions are those with direct profit and loss responsibilities.

The McKinsey & Company study got down into the weeds researching this topic. The study found that the rosy story of women ascending to C-suite positions between 2019-2024 contains an ugly long-term thorn. During this time period, the percentage of women promoted to the C-suite serving in staff roles increased while the percentage of women serving in C-suite line roles was essentially flat (10% over five years). The fastest-growing C-suite positions during those five years were, in order, chief data officer, chief legal officer, and chief human resources officer.

Since companies cannot continue to add staff positions indefinitely, it’s imperative that women are given exposure to leadership development training in line roles as well. Providing this balanced opportunity for promotion and leadership will lead to mutually beneficial long-term success for both women in print and their employers.

3. Support Working Moms

Have you heard of the “maternal wall?” It’s the working mom’s version of the “glass ceiling.”

A Pew Research Center report found that 23% of working moms (compared to 15% of working dads) said they have turned down promotions due to the inability to reconcile work and parental obligations. A similar study highlighted by AAUW.org found that 17% of working moms report being passed over for “important assignments” that could help advance their careers. Considering that working moms with kids under the age of 18 make up 74% percent of the workforce (according to BLS), that’s a LOT of leadership potential at risk.

The most important support companies can give to working moms to prevent a calamitous crash into the maternal wall is, bar none, increased workplace flexibility that allows them to lead both at work and at home. This includes scheduling flexibility as well as hybrid or remote work options. The second? Clearly outlined maternity policies. (This is another area in which your company should be monitoring industry benchmark surveys on employee benefits in order to stay competitive.)

And don’t discount non-linear resumes when hiring. If a rock-star female employee was destined for leadership roles before earning the title of M-O-M., she’s still worthy of leadership development – maybe even more so! – after spending time away in the child-rearing trenches.

4. But Don’t Ignore Your Menopausal Workforce

Wait, what? Did I just say “menopause?” Yes, I did and for good reason. Because not all your female workforce will face childcare responsibilities. But do you know what they all will face? Menopause. And do you know when they generally face it? Between the ages of 45 and 55 — at the time when they’re most likely to be at the peak of leadership in their careers.

Therefore, a major push is underway to normalize the workplace conversation around the end of a woman’s reproductive cycle. According to the World Economic Forum, one in 10 women left their professional role in 2022 due to quality-of-life symptoms associated with menopause. Meanwhile, 59% of women between the ages of 45-55 surveyed said they experienced “negative impacts of symptoms in the workplace.”

And a U.K. policy report found the cost to replace a woman leaving her job due to menopause to be £30,000 (approximately $38,000). These numbers are driving the new workplace conversation related to women’s health.

Understanding and de-stigmatizing both the physical and mental affects of menopause is key to supporting women leaders during this time in their lives. Creating inclusive women’s health benefit and leave policies, offering space and time for female employees to participate in allyship groups with co-workers in the same age demographic, and normalizing the topic of menopausal symptoms in an increasingly intergenerational workforce are all ways to ensure a woman’s hard-earned leadership position is not sacrificed due to menopause.

5. Engage Men in Senior Leadership Roles

The “men of print” have a vital and influential role to play in advancing women leaders at their companies and throughout the industry. Specifically, engaging senior level executive men to participate in sponsorship programs is a juggernaut way to advance women into leadership roles.

Like mentorship, acting as a sponsor to a less experienced female employee involves giving her career guidance and counsel, but it goes beyond advice to include actively advocating for her — even when she’s not in the room. Actions could include introducing her to industry executives she would not otherwise meet or recommending her inclusion on a high-profile team project.

Informally, you might call this practice “taking someone under your wing.” But while that type of casual sponsorship is well-meaning, it’s often laden with unintended affinity bias, in which the sponsor gravitates toward helping someone like him/herself. And in the predominantly male led printing industry, this generally means guys helping guys.

That’s why companies are beginning to institute formal sponsorship programs that strategically matches sponsors with employees in more underrepresented groups.

So far, results are impressive. Entry-level workers in a sponsorship program were 167% more likely to be placed on a “stretch assignment” and sponsored employees earned 11.6% more than their co-workers. These programs are especially meaningful to women, who are 24% less likely than men to get advice from senior leaders.

The McKinsey & Company survey found that formal sponsorship programs are not yet commonplace, with only 1 in 4 companies responding affirmatively that they had instituted one. So, there’s a long runway to expand these efforts. Can you imagine the power of cross-gender sponsorship when and if it takes off in the printing industry? It could be mind-blowing.

6. Sponsor Membership in Women-Led Organizations

The printing industry lends itself to a lot of women who find themselves as “onlys,” as in, the only one of their gender at the executive conference table, on a sales team, or in a production unit.

McKinsey & Company data shows that across industries 1 in 5 women say they are onlys. This group reports feeling “left out” (24%), “under pressure to perform” (44%), or “on guard” (34%) at work. Not exactly the ideal dynamics to spur leadership
aspirations.

That’s one reason Women in Print Alliance was launched. In addition to providing educational programming on topics such as battling imposter syndrome, navigating trade shows and business conferences, or sharpening skills like negotiating and digital branding, the membership organization provides a forum for connection and collaboration.

Colorways, a transformative summit dedicated to empowering women of color within the apparel decoration segment of the printing industry, is another example of a women-led initiative designed to foster community. Since women of color report an even higher rate (2 in 5) of being onlys for gender and race, events like Colorways are invaluable to lifting up female leaders.

Most importantly, women-led organizations and summits like the ones highlighted above offer a safe space for women to share and learn from one another’s failures — and to ultimately celebrate one another’s successes.

7. Provide Equal Pay

Enough said.

Lisbeth Lyons Black is the director of Women in Print Alliance. For more information on the Women in Print Alliance, visit womeninprintalliance.org.