The Ambition Gap Is a Support Problem

Women want to lead. The data is clear: 80% of women report wanting a promotion, just six percentage points behind their male peers according to the 2025 Lean In & McKinsey Women in the Workplace Report. The research also tells us that when women receive equal support, that gap disappears entirely. So, why are women still underrepresented at every level of leadership, for eleven consecutive years running?

The answer isn’t ambition it is structure and support.

Women hold just 29% of C-suite roles nationwide, and locally the picture is stark. According to the Allen County Women in the Workplace Report, women make up 38.7% of leadership in Fort Wayne, 77% of women in the region earn bottom-tier salaries, compared to only 44% of men. These aren’t coincidences they are symptoms of systemic gaps in how organizations identify, develop, and advance women.

The good news? Middle managers are exactly where the change can happen.

Know Yourself First

Before a manager can meaningfully support the women on their team, they must examine what they believe about them. Two biases show up most consistently in the research.

The first is the double bind. When a woman is direct, she’s labeled “aggressive” but when she’s collaborative, she’s seen as weak. Entry- and mid-level women face more scrutiny in hiring, evaluations, and promotions than their male peers and often for the same behaviors that get men promoted.

The second is the sponsorship gap. Entry-level women are half as likely as men to have a senior-level sponsor. And both men and women can be reluctant to advocate for women’s advancement. When was the last time someone said the name of a high-potential woman on your team to someone who could open a door for her?

Know Your Team

The “broken rung,” the point where women first fall behind is at that first step into management. Only 30% of entry-level women received a promotion in the last two years, compared to 43% of men at the same level. Only one-third of entry-level people managers are women.

Managers who want to close that gap for themselves and women on their teams should focus on three things: having deliberate career conversations instead of waiting for women to self-advocate; watching who gets stretch assignments (women receive them at just 69% the rate of men); and building succession planning systems that create accountability around who is and isn’t being developed.

Know Your Role

Individual goodwill isn’t enough. Leaders need to use their positional authority deliberately.

That means sponsoring, not just mentoring. This looks like actively putting women’s names forward for opportunities, not just offering guidance. It means giving specific, actionable feedback, because research shows women are less likely to receive concrete developmental input. It means distributing stretch opportunities based on skills, not personal rapport. And it means avoiding the assumption that remote work signals lower commitment, a bias that falls disproportionately on women.

The ambition gap will close when support becomes equal. That starts with managers who are willing to examine their assumptions, pay attention to their teams, and use the authority they have, not just the intentions they carry.