What the "Ambition Gap" Gets Wrong About Women

Psychology Today | 02.06.2026 08:08
This year, for the first time in the 11 years that Lean In and McKinsey have tracked women in corporate America, they reported an “ambition gap.” Eighty percent of women said they wanted to be promoted to the next level, compared to 86 percent of men, with even wider gaps at the ends of the leadership pipeline (69 percent of entry-level women versus 80 percent of entry-level men; 84 percent of senior women versus 92 percent of senior men).