A new report from LeanIn.org and McKinsey indicates that it’s not the “glass ceiling” that is the primary block to women’s progress in the workplace. "[T]he biggest obstacle that women face is much earlier in the pipeline, at the first step up to manager," the report says. "Fixing this 'broken rung' is the key to achieving parity."

In Women in the Workplace 2019, the researchers said that for every 100 men promoted and hired to manager, only 72 women are promoted and hired. "This early inequality has a long-term impact on the talent pipeline [because] there are significantly fewer women to hire or promote to senior managers," the report notes.

To fix this problem, the report recommends that employers set a goal for getting more women into first-level management. The report also recommends that employers actually require diversity in hiring and promotions and put hiring evaluators through unconscious bias training.

You can review the report here: Women in the Workplace 2019