Netwomen’s Year in Review: Celebrating Progress and Looking Ahead to 2025

As 2024 draws to a close, Netwomen want to take a moment to reflect on a year filled with growth, connection, and impactful progress towards our mission of creating more inclusive workplaces and elevating women in business.

This year, we’ve been privileged to host monthly Aspiring Leaders Circle events, offering a unique platform for women to come together, share challenges, celebrate wins, and engage in candid discussions on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). These sessions have fostered an incredible community as part of the Career Accelerator, with members seeking advice and uplifting one another with actionable insights and encouragement.

In addition to these monthly sessions, we introduced quarterly Global DEIB Collaboration events in partnership with the Association of British Mentors (ABM). These panel discussions and fireside chats brought together professionals and thought leaders to explore innovative ways to advance DEIB practices and elevate women in business.

Our key focus for 2024 was advocating for 50/50 gender leadership and addressing the gender pay gap- issues that remain central to achieving workplace equity. Through our events, mentorship programmes, and membership offerings, we’ve witnessed remarkable stories of progress. Women in our network have achieved promotions into leadership roles and advanced their careers, embodying the change we’re striving to see in the professional world.

On a broader scale, the data continues to spotlight the urgency of these efforts:

• Women remain significantly underrepresented in senior leadership, holding only 30% of such roles globally. The underrepresentation of women of colour in leadership positions persisted across both years. In 2023 and 2024, women of colour held only 4% of C-suite roles.
• The gender pay gap persists, with women earning on average 15% less than their male counterparts for the same roles.
• The McKinsey & Company “Women in the Workplace” reports for 2023 and 2024 with women holding 29% of these top executive positions.

This figure remained steady in 2024, indicating that while progress has been made, further advancement has stalled.

• Both reports highlight persistent challenges in the corporate pipeline, particularly at the first step up to manager. In 2023, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 87 women were promoted.

McKinsey & Company

This disparity continued in 2024, with the “broken rung” remaining a significant barrier to women’s advancement. 

• The 2024 report projects that, without accelerated efforts, achieving leadership parity for all women could take almost 50 years, with white women potentially reaching parity in 22 years, and women of colour facing a timeline of more than twice as long.

While these numbers underscore the ongoing challenges and the need for sustained, deliberate actions to promote gender diversity and inclusion in corporate leadership and remind us of the work yet to be done, the success stories within our community demonstrate that change is possible when we come together with intention and purpose.

We are also incredibly grateful for the partnerships we’ve cultivated this year. Working alongside organisations that share our values and commitment to empowering women in business has been a cornerstone of our success. These collaborations have allowed us to extend our impact through mentorship, professional development resources, and shared initiatives.

As we look forward to 2025, our commitment to empowering women and creating inclusive workplaces is stronger than ever. Next year, we aim to expand our events, introduce new resources to support professional development, and continue driving the conversation on equitable leadership and pay equity.

Finally, as the festive season begins, we want to extend our warmest wishes to you and your loved ones. May this Christmas bring joy, peace, and cherished moments with family and friends. Thank you for being an essential part of Netwomen’s journey this year. Together, we’re making a difference.

Here’s to a happy and successful New Year – we can’t wait to see what we achieve together in 2025!