Leaky Pipeline: Failing To Promote Women Does Not Harm Perceptions of Diversity Efforts

Authors:

Abstract: This research examines the disparity between organizations' diversity initiatives and women's career advancement prospects to senior roles. Despite the increasing investment in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions. The research comprises four experiments involving 2978 female participants. The findings reveal that women tend to focus on the gender composition of entry-level positions or the hiring stage, overlooking the conditional probability of promotion. Even when presented with evidence of the disparity in promotion opportunities, participants failed to adjust their perceptions. Efforts to redirect attention and debiasing interventions proved ineffective. The outcomes underscore the challenge of bridging the gap between diversity initiatives and women's career advancement. Organizations that prioritize numerical diversity in hiring may inadvertently perpetuate unequal promotion opportunities, raising questions about the efficacy of current DEI strategies in fostering true gender equality in leadership.

Track: DEI

Keywords: Underrepresentation of women, Diversity signals, Pipeline problem, Probabilistic reasoning