Women are still less likely to aspire to leadership in business, despite decades of gender initiatives – we need to find out why

Do gender diversity initiatives reflect women's career aspirations? Jacob Lund/Shutterstock

The gender gap in pay, positions and even pensions for working women is well-established, but research shows that a gender aspiration gap has also emerged in recent years. This is when women do not aspire to rise through the ranks in the same way as men do, and it could affect efforts to encourage more women to apply for leadership roles at work.

The global drive to increase social equality in recent years has been led by ongoing research about how women are underrepresented in leadership roles throughout the business world. For example, recent research shows that while the share of women in senior management roles is increasing incrementally, the “leaky pipeline” effect means that fewer women reach the highest positions in companies.