How Can I Support Women at my Company?

While corporate America has made strides in gender equality in the past few decades, the latest Women in the Workplace report by LeanIn.Org, shows that only half of companies say women’s career advancement is a high priority, which is a stark decline from recent years. This is correlated with an ambition gap — women are less likely than men to want a promotion — which seems to be fueled by a general decline in support for women in the workforce. When women do receive sufficient support, that gap vanishes.

Although structural policies that promote gender equality are crucial for giving women the highest chance of success at work, there are actions that individuals — regardless of their gender — can take to help support their women colleagues.

Key Takeaways

• Supporting women at work is about more than the occasional shoutout on Slack. Support comes from specific, repeated actions that help close the opportunity gap many women face at work.
• Offering sponsorship is the number one way that more senior employees can support women at work. While mentorship is offering advice to the employee, sponsorship is actively advocating for their career growth. Women are far less likely than men to have a sponsor.
• Other ways to support women at work include sharing the office housework, giving women airtime in meetings, highlighting women’s achievements to management, and starting a women’s career support group in which the members pledge to advocate for each other.
• While personal advocacy is important, ultimately it’s company-wide policies that prevent gender bias that will offer true support for women at work.

What does it mean to support women at your company?

Supporting women at work goes beyond the occasional “good job” shoutout on Slack. Support comes from specific, repeatable actions that create an environment where women’s opinions are equally valued and they are equally considered for career advancement opportunities, such as stretch assignments and promotions. A video from LeanIn.Org recommends starting by asking friends and colleagues for feedback on how you can better support them, then implementing small, concrete actions every day until they become a habit.

While the tips below are helpful for supporting all women, remember that women from historically marginalized communities — such as women of color or women with disabilities — are even more likely to face discrimination at work. If you witness any type of unfair treatment, speak up. Nadia Mossburg, a senior manager in the public sector who uses a wheelchair, told Lean In about a time when she was going to be denied a job simply because the office for that position was on a second floor that was not wheelchair accessible. A colleague pushed back, reminding the decision makers that Mossburg was very capable (not to mention that this could qualify as workplace discrimination).

6 ways to support women at your company

How can I become a sponsor at work?

Many modern companies offer formal mentorship programs. Mentors can be a valuable part of an individual’s career development, but, according to a report in the Harvard Business Review, those relationships are typically about sharing advice. A sponsor, on the other hand, “is a person who has power and will use it for you,” such as to recommend you for a promotion.

The 2025 Women in the Workplace report from LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company found that women overall are less likely to have sponsors than men, with a particularly large gap among entry level employees. This matters because, as the report found, employees with sponsors are promoted at nearly twice the rate as those without. A lack of sponsorship for women contributes to the broken rung, the promotion gap at the first step up to manager which, LeanIn.Org has identified as the single biggest barrier women face on the path to leadership.

One study published in 2024 found that, in terms of career advancement, it is more effective for sponsors to form long-term, personal relationships with their protegees than for employees to participate in short-term sponsorship programs through the company they work for. In other words, finding a protegee through a formal workplace program can be a good place to start, but maintaining a meaningful professional relationship with that person actually leads to career development.

How can I fairly share office housework?

Office housework, a term coined by LeanIn.Org, refers to tasks that keep the workplace running — like taking notes, planning events, and booking conference rooms — but rarely lead to career advancement. Like at-home housework, women are disproportionately assigned these tasks, regardless of seniority. Researchers with the University of Pittsburgh found that women were 50% more likely than men to volunteer for these types of tasks, and women were 44% more likely to be asked to take on the work by their managers.

In lieu of hiring assistants who can handle all this administrative work, splitting these types of tasks evenly among colleagues means everyone has an equal amount of non-promotable tasks as part of their workload. If you notice a woman colleague has more of these on her to do list than you, offer to take some off her plate.

How can I support women in meetings?

It’s been widely reported that women have fewer opportunities to share ideas and opinions at work, especially if they’re earlier on in their career. Multiple studies have found that women report experiencing interruptions more frequently than their colleagues who are men. The 2025 Women in the Workplace study found that entry and mid-level women are less likely than men to feel like they can speak up and take risks at work. Senior women, however, are more likely than senior men to feel comfortable asserting themselves, meaning there is opportunity for senior women to speak up on behalf of more junior women colleagues.

If you’re in a meeting and realize a woman colleague hasn’t had a chance to weigh in on an area where she has expertise, don’t be afraid to throw the conversation her way. You can say something like, “Christine has been working on this for years. I’d love to hear her thoughts.” or “Briana hasn’t had a chance to speak yet. Is there anything you’d like to add?”

Getting comfortable speaking up in meetings takes practice, and it can be helpful to have someone more senior give that nudge of encouragement. Filsun Moussa, a senior manager in regulatory affairs and Lean In Network Leader, credits a colleague with pushing her out of her comfort zone in a productive way. “I told that group of people, ‘Oh, I’ll just do this one slide. I’m not good at talking,’” she recalled in a video by Lean In. “My other co-chair says, ‘No, you’re not going to just do one slide.’ She pushed and prodded and pulled that out of me.”

How can I highlight women colleagues’ good work?

The well-proven science of negativity bias means that people are more likely to share feedback about something that went wrong than highlight when something went right. Making an effort to acknowledge positive moments can be useful in supporting other women at work. If you were impressed by a woman’s performance on a project or felt she navigated a tricky situation well, make sure to share that with her manager. If you’re in a position where you can impact promotion decisions, be sure to speak up (with examples) if you feel a woman deserves one.

Kathryn Edwards, Ph.D., a retired director in the city government and tech industry, told LeanIn.Org about a colleague who put together a presentation for the executive staff about why the company should create a Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion position just for Edwards. This is an extreme example of going above and beyond to advocate for a coworker, but even just giving specific, positive feedback during performance review periods could help demonstrate that colleague’s value to management.

How do I start a women’s community at work?

There’s power in numbers, and that applies to likeminded people in the workforce too. Finding a group of women who commit to advocating for each other is a great way to learn what type of support your colleagues need, as well as find people who can advocate for you in return.

This could be a formal group — like an employee resource group (ERG) or Lean In Circle — or an informal regular meetup of women colleagues. Either way, these groups create an opportunity to share stories and provide advice. They’re also a great way to form close sponsor and mentor relationships that can last throughout your entire career.

How can I advocate for company-wide policies that prevent gender bias?

All of these personal moments of advocating for your women colleagues are important pieces of the support pie, but ultimately the biggest, lasting changes will only happen if the overarching company structure is set up so that women can succeed.

What are best practices for having more women in a workplace?

According to In the 2025 Women in the Workplace report, this includes:

• Treating gender diversity as a high organizational priority
• Having a company leader focused on fostering diversity and inclusion
• Senior leaders being held accountable for advancing diversity and inclusion
• Senior leaders communicating that disrespectful behavior is not welcome in the workplace
• Consistently using clear criteria for hiring and promotions
• Reminding evaluators about how to avoid bias before the hiring or promotion process begins
• Having established mechanisms for surfacing bias in hiring and promotions
• Tracking hiring and promotion outcomes to identify ways to make process improvements

If you are in a position to have an impact on these processes, make advocating for them a habit. The Women in the Workplace study noted that leaders are most effective at activating other employees to push for these policies when they talk often and authentically about why change is needed. The study recommends sharing research findings that back up the positive impacts the policy — like fairer promotion processes or pay transparency — could have on the company and employees at large.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a mentor and a sponsor?

A mentor gives you career advice, while a sponsor advocates for your career advancement. Sponsorship is understood to lead to more tangible career growth — people with a sponsor are promoted twice as often as those without — but women are far less likely to have a sponsor than men.

What is office housework and why does it matter?

Office housework is a term for the administrative tasks that are necessary to keep the company running, but don’t lead to career growth. These tasks — such as booking conference rooms, scheduling company outings, and taking notes during meetings — are disproportionately delegated to women, giving them less time to focus on the work that will be analyzed during performance reviews.

How can men specifically be better allies to women at work?

Since there are statistically more men in leadership positions than women, those men should be proactive about becoming sponsors to a women colleagues. Men are also less likely to be interrupted in meetings, so they could use that platform to ask a woman with expertise to speak on the topic at hand.

What’s the single most impactful thing I can do to support a woman at work?

Offer her sponsorship and advocate for her career growth by highlighting her achievements to management.

What is the broken rung and how does it relate to allyship?

The broken rung is the promotion gap at the first step up to manager, when for every 100 men to be promoted only 93 women are. It is the single biggest barrier women face on the path to leadership, so it is important for allies to take a proactive role in combating the lack of sponsorship and stretch project opportunities for women that can contribute to that gap.