Barriers Women Face in the Workplace (and the Fixes That Actually Work)
We keep handing women the same instructions: be more confident, speak up, negotiate harder, be resilient.
But most of the barriers women face in the workplace aren’t personal shortcomings, they’re systemic failures. When pay is hidden, promotions are unclear, meetings are scheduled around power (not people), and returning from leave quietly derails careers… the gap doesn’t close. It compounds.
Here’s what the data and lived workplace reality keeps showing us:
In Canada, women in the core working age (25–54) earned 12.2% less than men on average in 2024 (Statistics Canada, 2024).
The “broken rung” persists: fewer women are promoted to manager per 100 men, with sharper disparities for women of colour (McKinsey, 2024).
Meeting overload and after-hours work disproportionately strains caregivers, and 77% of unpaid caregivers in Canada identify as women (Statistics Canada, 2025).
Sponsorship matters—but only 45% of women report ever having a sponsor (WOI+, 2025).
So what actually moves the needle? Infrastructure and policies that are enforced, measured, and designed for real life.
Below are the biggest barriers and the gaps organizations continue to miss when they try to fix them.
Barrier 1. Pay that’s hidden (and “ranges” that exist but aren’t shared)
When pay is kept “private,” inequity becomes easier to maintain and therefore harder to challenge. People are left guessing what’s fair, who got hired above the band, and what it takes to move up. That guesswork doesn’t create motivation but rather, mistrust.
Where pay transparency rules apply, disclosure rises fast. In B.C., pay transparency requirements have helped normalize posting salary information, and B.C.’s 2024 reporting found 85% of job postings included pay information, compared to 52% elsewhere in Canada.
Ontario has now joined this shift. As of January 1, 2026, employers with 25+ employees must include expected compensation or a compensation range in publicly advertised job postings under new ESA job-posting rules. When a range is used, the spread is capped (e.g., it can’t exceed $50,000), with certain exemptions for very high-comp roles.
Fixes that work:
Publish salary bands internally (not “HR-only” documents).
Standardize publishing starting offers within bands and document any exceptions.
Train managers to talk about pay clearly and consistently.
Barrier 2: The broken rung into management
One of the most persistent barriers women face in the workplace is the first leap into management. Women can be high-performing, indispensable, and still not get the “tap.” When organizations do not clearly define how promotions happen and when promotion pathways are unclear, promotional decisions become subjective and bias ensures those who get promoted already fit the existing leadership mould.
A major driver is simple: promotion isn’t posted, people just get selected. If employees can’t see the criteria, they can’t build toward it. And if leaders aren’t accountable for consistent decisions, inequity becomes self-reinforcing.
Fixes that work:
Write promotion criteria down in plain language and share it.
Post opportunities and acting roles instead of filling them quietly.
Calibrate decisions across leaders so “ready” means the same thing for everyone.
Barrier 3: Always-on cultures that punish caregivers
When the most important meetings happen at the edges of the day, caregivers don’t just miss meetings, they also miss influence. An always-on culture quietly shapes who may be seen as “committed”, who gets included in decision-making, and who gets access to stretch work.
This is not only a scheduling problem but also a power problem. If leadership is free at 5:30pm, and that becomes the default for key discussions, the workplace is designed around one life pattern while others end up paying the price.
Fixes that work:
Set core hours for key decisions and important meetings.
Protect a no-meeting focus block each week (inside core hours).
Track meeting load by role/team so visibility doesn’t become a penalty.
Barrier 4: The return-from-leave penalty
One of the most common patterns I hear: someone returns from parental leave or medical leave and is told, “We’ll ease you back,” but the high-visibility work goes elsewhere. Their role becomes maintenance, not momentum. Over time, that turns into a quiet leadership detour.
A supportive return isn’t just kindness but it’s an important way to retain talent. Without structure, managers default to “protecting” someone by removing opportunities. The result: the person returns, but their trajectory doesn’t.
Fixes that work:
Build a real ramp-back plan: plan and check-in week 1, month 1, month 3.
Reassign stretch opportunities intentionally, don’t “redistribute and forget.”
Confirm a return-to-growth conversation at 60–90 days (not just day 1).
Barrier 5: Mentorship isn’t enough, women need sponsorship
Mentorship is valuable. It builds confidence, clarity, and skills. But mentorship alone doesn’t reliably change who gets the high-impact project, who gets introduced to decision-makers, or who gets named for promotion.
Sponsorship is different: it is advocacy, visibility, and risk-sharing. It’s someone saying, “Put her on this,” and backing it up when resistance shows up. Without sponsorship, leadership pipelines stay uneven, especially for women who are racialized, disabled, newcomers, and others who face layered bias.
Fixes that work:
Create sponsorship with accountability: who is sponsoring whom, and for what opportunities.
Measure leaders on who they put forward (not just who they “support”).
Make sponsorship reciprocal and resourced rather than informal and optional.
If you’re a leader, start here:
If you only take one thing from this: women don’t need more confidence, they need better systems.
In the next 7 days, pick one to implement:
Make salary ranges visible internally
Write promotion criteria down and apply it consistently
Protect one no-meeting block inside core hours
Pilot a real ramp-back plan after leave
Build sponsorship with accountability
International Women’s Day is approaching and 2026’s theme is “Give To Gain”. That theme is a gift for workplaces because it points to what actually changes outcomes for women and gender-diverse individuals.
Give transparency. Give access to opportunity. Give clear criteria. Give protected time. And yes, give sponsorship and mentorship with accountability.
Because when women gain access to fair systems, everyone gains: stronger retention, better leadership pipelines, and workplace cultures built to last.
Looking for guidance to take the first step? Does your Professional Development need a re-fresh? Let Curated Leadership design a tailored Lunch and Learn that equips your team with real strategies for mentorship, sponsorship, stretch opportunities, and bias interruption for International Women’s Day 2026. Email hello@curatedleadership.com to find out more or book a call!
