Recent federal, state and local elections brought a surge of women leaders into public office. But while that progress is getting widespread attention, the reality is that women still lag far behind men when it comes to leadership roles. They remain significantly under-represented at the highest rungs of almost every field: corporate, government, nonprofit, education, law, medicine, finance and banking, and the military. In 2020, there were only 36 women leading America’s biggest companies — that’s only about 7% of all Fortune 500 CEO’s.

The problem is not a lack of qualified potential leaders to fill the roles. Women make up more than half of the U.S. workforce and they receive the majority of university degrees at virtually every level. So while qualified women are certainly in the pipeline, there are barriers and biases that keep them from attaining the highest – and most highly-compensated – leadership roles.

Blatant sex discrimination remains an obstacle, as data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission show. But subtler problems — such as negative stereotypes about women in leadership and hostile and unwelcoming environment in the Boardroom or the C-suite — also keep women out of top spots. Unconscious or implicit bias can affect decisions about who moves into leadership roles.