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Development and progression are about how people build skills, gain experience and move forward at work. This includes access to training, mentoring, networking, high-profile projects and opportunities to take on new responsibilities, as well as progression into more senior or higher-paid roles.

Development does not only happen through formal training courses. Many of the most valuable opportunities are informal or on-the-job, such as shadowing, acting-up roles, project work, coaching, or exposure to senior colleagues. Progression can also be gradual, for example through increased responsibility, expanded duties, or movement into roles with greater influence.

How development and progression operate in practice is shaped by everyday decisions:

• who is encouraged to develop,
• who is offered opportunities, and
• whose potential is recognised and supported.

Where access to development is informal, inconsistent or based on assumptions about ambition or availability, women are more likely to miss out. Over time, this limits progression, reinforces occupational segregation, and contributes to women’s under-representation in senior and decision-making roles.

Taking a clear and inclusive approach to development and progression can help your business make better use of skills, retain talent, and build a stronger pipeline for future roles across all levels of the organisation.

Women are less likely than men to access development and progression opportunities at work, not because of a lack of ability or ambition, but because of how opportunities are identified, discussed and allocated in practice.

Development is often shaped by informal decision-making. Opportunities may be offered through conversations, networks or manager discretion, rather than being openly communicated. Where this happens, the same people are more likely to benefit repeatedly, and women are more likely to be overlooked.

Assumptions also play a role. Women may be perceived as less interested in progression, less able to take on additional responsibility, or less suitable for development because they work part-time, flexibly, or have caring responsibilities. These assumptions can influence who is encouraged to apply for opportunities, who is put forward, and who receives investment.

These barriers are often more pronounced for some groups of women, including disabled women, racially minoritised women, women in lower-paid or stereotypically female roles, and women returning from maternity leave. When multiple forms of disadvantage intersect, access to development can become even more restricted.

Recognising how and why women miss out on development is an important step in identifying where changes to everyday practice could widen access and support fairer progression outcomes across your business.

Women are underrepresented at senior levels across most sectors, even where entry-level roles are more gender balanced. This pattern is often described as the glass ceiling – the invisible barrier that prevents women from progressing into more senior or decision-making roles, despite having the skills and experience to do so.

In practice, many organisations experience more than one glass ceiling. One often sits just below senior management, where progression slows or stops for women. Another can sit above lower-grade or administrative roles, where skills are undervalued and clear progression routes are lacking. This means talented women can become stuck in roles with limited development or progression opportunities.

The concept of the ‘broken rung’ helps explain how these patterns develop. Women are less likely than men to progress into their first management or leadership role. This reduces the number of women in the pipeline for more senior positions and makes gender imbalance harder to address at later stages.

These barriers are not caused by individual choices alone. They are shaped by how roles are designed, how potential is recognised, and which experience is valued. Skills developed in stereotypically female roles are often overlooked or not seen as transferable to more senior roles. Disabled women face judgement and doubt and have to work harder to prove they are as capable as colleagues. Assumptions about an individual’s English language skills based on their name or accent, leading to racially minoritised women being passed over for development because they are seen as less competent.

Understanding where progression breaks down in your business can help you identify where targeted development, clearer pathways or additional support may be needed to ensure women are not excluded from future opportunities.

Part-time work, caring responsibilities and maternity leave can create significant barriers to development and progression, particularly where opportunities are designed around full-time, uninterrupted working patterns.

Women are more likely to work part-time or have primary caring responsibilities for children or other family members. Development opportunities that take place outside normal working hours, require regular travel, or assume full availability can therefore be harder for women to access. Over time, this can limit skill development and reduce progression opportunities.

Women who take maternity leave or other career breaks may also miss out on development while they are away. Where businesses fail to keep staff informed about opportunities, or assume they are not interested in participating, women can return to work feeling out of the loop or at a disadvantage compared to colleagues who have remained in post.

These patterns can be reinforced by assumptions about commitment or ambition. Women with caring responsibilities may be overlooked for development or progression on the basis that opportunities would be ‘too much’ or difficult to combine with family life. This can result in missed opportunities and contribute to longer-term inequality.

Recognising how part-time work, caring roles and maternity leave affect access to development is an important step in identifying where changes to timing, communication or expectations could help ensure opportunities are available to all staff, regardless of their working pattern or personal circumstances.

Progression is not only shaped by formal training or promotion processes. In many workplaces, development and progression are influenced by visibility – who is seen, known and trusted – and by access to informal networks and high-profile work.

Opportunities to lead projects, work with senior colleagues, or take on stretch roles are often discussed or allocated informally. Where this happens, the same people may be repeatedly identified as having ‘potential’, while others are overlooked. Women are less likely to be included in these informal networks, particularly where they rely on presenteeism, after-work socialising, or activities that exclude carers. This exclusion is even more pronounced for disabled women and racially minoritised women.

High-profile projects play a key role in progression. They allow staff to build skills, demonstrate capability, and raise their profile within a business. Women are more likely to be assigned lower-visibility work that is essential but less likely to lead to recognition or progression, while men are more often given opportunities that are seen as career-enhancing.

These patterns can be particularly pronounced for racially minoritised women and disabled women, who may face additional barriers to inclusion in informal networks or assumptions about suitability for visible roles.

Understanding how opportunities for visibility, project work and exposure are identified and allocated in your business can help you recognise where informal practices may be limiting access to development and progression, and where greater transparency or wider sharing of opportunities could support fairer outcomes.

Supporting development does not require a single approach. Different roles, career stages and circumstances mean that a range of development options will work better than a one-size-fits-all model.

Formal training courses can be valuable, but many effective development opportunities are informal or on-the-job. These might include shadowing, acting-up roles, project work, coaching, or opportunities to learn new skills within an existing role. These approaches can be particularly helpful where budgets are limited.

Mentoring and networking can also support development and progression. Mentoring can help staff build confidence, navigate workplace challenges and plan their next steps, while networking can increase access to information, opportunities and role models. Women-only or targeted networks can be especially effective where women are underrepresented or face barriers to progression.

External training, qualifications and apprenticeships can help build specialist skills and support longer-term progression. However, it is important to consider whether these opportunities are equally accessible, and whether they lead to meaningful progression outcomes for women as well as men.

Taking a flexible and inclusive approach to development – using a mix of formal and informal opportunities – can help ensure more staff are able to build skills, gain experience and progress over time.

Where women are underrepresented in certain roles or levels, employers can take targeted steps to improve access to development and progression. This is known as positive action, and it is lawful under the Equality Act 2010.

Positive action is not about giving someone an unfair advantage. It is about addressing disadvantage or underrepresentation so that women have a fair chance to develop, progress and compete on equal terms. It can be particularly useful where patterns show that women are missing out on progression opportunities, despite having the skills and experience required.

Positive action in development and progression might include:

• targeted development or leadership programmes for women
• mentoring or sponsorship schemes where women are underrepresented
• women-only information sessions or development opportunities
• targeted support to build confidence, skills or experience in areas linked to progression

Positive action should be proportionate and evidence based. This means understanding where women are underrepresented or facing barriers, and designing initiatives to address those specific issues.

Using positive action can help strengthen progression pipelines, improve diversity at senior levels, and ensure your business is making full use of available talent.

Ensuring development and progression opportunities are accessible and fair requires attention to how opportunities are designed, communicated and delivered, not just who they are offered to.

Opportunities can become unintentionally exclusive where training is scheduled outside normal working hours, relies on in-person attendance, or assumes full-time availability. Disabled women may also face barriers where reasonable adjustments are not considered, or where flexibility is treated as an exception rather than a normal part of development.

Clear communication is essential. Development opportunities should be openly advertised, with transparent criteria and expectations, so staff understand what is available and how they can access it. Relying on informal conversations or manager discretion alone increases the risk that opportunities are unevenly distributed.

Accessibility also matters for staff in lower-paid or lower-grade roles, who may have fewer opportunities to step away from day-to-day duties or less likely to see development as ‘for them’. Ensuring development is built into roles across the organisation helps widen access and strengthen progression pipelines.

Designing development with accessibility and fairness in mind helps ensure opportunities are available to all staff, supports inclusion, and reduces the risk that existing inequalities are reinforced over time.

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