What 60 Years of Data Reveals About How Men and Women Experience Leadership

In 1965, Harvard Business Review surveyed 2,000 male and female executives to track perceptions of women in leadership. Since then, researchers have replicated that study every twenty years to gauge shifting attitudes toward women in top posts. In this latest installment, which includes responses from 193 senior U.S. executives, supported by in‑depth interviews and several new questions, researchers have found some troubling backsliding: Men and women now diverge sharply on whether women are judged more harshly, held to higher standards, and advance through genuinely meritocratic systems. The findings point not to overt hostility but to “underground bias”: informal sponsorship, subjective performance criteria, and unequal access to P&L roles. The researchers argue that organizations possess the tools to fix these gaps but have not yet summoned the will.

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