Recent research tells us, again, that women outperform men on a wide range of leadership metrics. Yet women remain significantly under-represented in senior roles.
In this episode of the Lead to Soar podcast, Michelle Redfern and Mel Butcher challenge leaders to stop acting surprised by the leadership gender gap and start taking responsibility for it.
Admiring the problem is not leadership. Being “baffled” is not a strategy. And defaulting to unconscious bias training is not the solution.
This conversation is a direct call to action for organisational leaders who say they value women’s talent but continue to preside over systems that stall, sideline, or exhaust it.
In this episode, we cover
Why strong leadership capability does not automatically translate into advancement for women
How organisations confuse competence with opportunity and then claim confusion
The structural and cultural barriers leaders continue to ignore
Why bias training alone is a low-effort response to a systemic problem
What deliberate action looks like when leaders are serious about building a female talent pipeline
Where accountability for closing the leadership gender gap actually sits
Who this episode is for
Leaders who say they want more women at the top
Executives tired of surface-level gender equity initiatives
HR, DEI, and people leaders who want impact, not optics
Women who are done being told to “just keep performing and wait”
Why this matters
The leadership gender gap is not mysterious. It is produced by design choices, reward systems, and risk decisions made every day. Leaders do not need more data to admire. They need the courage to change how power, opportunity, and progression actually work.
This episode names the issue plainly and sets out what leaders must do next.
If this episode was useful, there are three simple ways to go further:
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