What women want: Closing the gap between potential and opportunity
23 October 2025
Elena Liquete looks at the key findings from the What Women Want report by CarringtonCrisp.
Despite decades of progress, women are still hitting the same invisible walls. Our new What Women Want 2025 report, based on surveys of more than 5,000 women and 500 employers across 26 countries and in-depth interviews with women and employers, reveals a familiar disconnect: employers believe they are doing enough to support women’s careers, but women’s experience tells a different story.
Almost seven in ten employers believe their organisations already provide adequate support for women’s advancement, yet only 9% have more than half of their senior leadership roles filled by women. While 81% of women and 80% of employers agree that business and executive education can help address workplace challenges, persistent barriers like cost, lack of support, and family responsibilities, continue to limit access and impact.
Women who have completed an MBA, EMBA, or executive education programme are overwhelmingly positive about their experience. They talk about gaining confidence, access to new networks, and enhanced visibility that have helped them move forward in their careers. But for many, the barriers to participation remain too high. Half of those who considered study but decided against it cited cost as the main reason, while employers were more likely to attribute women’s lack of participation to family commitments, revealing again a gap between perception and reality.
Flexibility is critical. Three-quarters of employers agree that executive education needs flexible options for women, and blended learning is the most popular format among prospective students. Yet programmes that can offer flexibility and strong peer networks remain in short supply.
The findings point to an urgent need for partnership. Business schools must work with employers to create accessible, evidence-based programmes that demonstrate clear impact and provide genuine opportunities for advancement. At the same time, employers must go beyond good intentions, linking executive education to career pathways, offering mentoring and sponsorship, and measuring women’s progression systematically.
What women want isn’t mysterious. It’s access to opportunity, support to succeed, and workplaces that recognise their contribution. Executive and business education can be a powerful catalyst for that change, but only if schools and employers are prepared to close the gap between intent and action.
Discover more about the findings on the CarringtonCrisp website, where you can download a short summary or purchase the full report.