We know what works to get women into the top job and keep them there. The real challenge? Acting on it before talented leaders opt out.

In 2025, women still hold only a small fraction of CEO roles across the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and the United Kingdom’s largest private companies. Yet our research, which covered 36 female UK CEOs over the last five years and included in-depth interviews with 30 of them, shows there is a substantial, proven talent pool of female leaders delivering results at the highest level. 

The playbook for appointing and retaining women CEOs is well-known (here’s but one example). The barrier is not a shortage of capable women, but how boards define “readiness”, how they act on talent and the support leaders receive. 

It is also about the choice women feel compelled to make long before they reach the C-suite.  High-potential women often turn down career-advancing moves not because they lack ambition, but due to two persistent factors. 

First, self-selection bias: Women tend to apply for promotions only when they meet all criteria. Many female CEOs in our study felt they “needed to be 120% ready” while male peers leapt in and learnt on the job. Second, they belief that the top job will require sacrificing family life. That belief is reinforced by organisational culture, peers and a lack of role models who show that leadership and family can coexist.

Myths vs. reality

Part of the problem is stubborn myths about what it takes to become a CEO.

For one thing, many assume that an elite education is indispensable. Yet only a small minority of CEOs in our study graduated from Oxford or Cambridge. Educational pedigree was rarely decisive in the views of our respondents. 

Another misconception, as mentioned before, is that CEOs need to choose between their work and family. But our research offers a counterpoint: Twenty-eight of the 30 CEOs we interviewed have children and most have long-term partners. Many said their careers have positively influenced their children’s ambitions. 

These women succeeded through supportive partners, clear boundaries and deliberate choices. Too many others, however, assume family and leadership are incompatible and rule themselves out of pivotal roles before they are even considered.

Finally, many mistakenly believe that female executives need to behave like men to succeed. Several CEOs in our survey recalled early pressure to adopt more traditionally “masculine” leadership styles – aggressively assertive, emotionally detached and unfailingly decisive – in order to fit in. 

Over time, however, they found that authenticity, not mimicry, was the key to impact. These women blended ambition with empathy, and resilience with collaboration, rejecting the binary between “male” and “female” leadership. 

Real obstacles

Misconceived notions aside, real systemic and cultural obstacles continue to hold women back.

Women are conditioned from a young age to be modest and accommodating. The assertiveness seen as leadership potential in boys is often labelled “bossy” in girls. This double standard carries into professional life, where behaviours praised in men may be judged harshly in women. 

Unconscious bias in promotion and selection processes is another major hurdle. Decision-makers, even with the best intentions, often gravitate toward candidates who resemble the predominantly male CEOs they’ve seen before. Consciously or not, they may favour men for leadership roles out of unfounded concerns that female candidates will be less committed – assuming women will “take time off to have children” or are less ambitious.

Women are also under-sponsored. While mentors advise, sponsors open doors. Many women we interviewed said no one had pushed them forward for pivotal P&L (profit and loss) roles or senior succession tracks. Without sponsorship, they are often overlooked for the very experiences that boards later expect.

Several female CEOs recounted being the only woman in the room throughout their career, which took a psychological toll. Being chronically outnumbered meant exclusion from informal networks and scarce role models or peers to reinforce their aspirations. 

Meanwhile, despite progress in policy, motherhood is still met with stigma. Women face subtle penalties, from assumptions about reduced commitment to fewer stretch assignments that affect both how others view them and how they view their own path forward.

Time to act

These challenges, while real, are not insurmountable. The solutions have long been clear. What’s lagging is consistent action. To truly unlock the female CEO pipeline, boards and their advisers need to act with intention on several fronts.

1. Redefine “CEO material”: Instead of relying on a narrow checklist of past titles or elite credentials, decision-makers should focus on the capabilities and results that truly predict leadership success. They should also expand the funnel of candidates by insisting on diversity in every senior talent pool – for example, requiring that longlists for top roles be 50/50 men and women.
2. Strengthen the support system around emerging female leaders: This means actively sponsoring women into high-visibility P&L roles and turnaround assignments (the kind of crucible experiences that prepare leaders for the CEO seat), rather than leaving their placement to chance. Managers play a key role too: when women hesitate, they must be ready to reframe the opportunity as supported growth.
3. Address structural barriers: Ensure that flexible work options, parental leave and re-integration support are not only in place but normalised and encouraged for anyone balancing leadership and family.
4. Make female role models visible: Share stories of leaders who integrate career and family. Replace the trade-off myth with examples of intentional design. Provide early career conversations with sponsors to shape opportunities around ambition and life stage. 

Everyone needs to step up, not just women

The tools exist; the challenge is following through. Improving gender balance at the top is not just about fairness but also competitiveness and good governance. A wider talent pool means stronger leadership and more diverse perspectives guiding the organisation in a complex world. The potential benefits of inclusive leadership are well-documented; what’s missing is the collective will to translate insight into action.

Boards and CEOs must lead by example: broaden the criteria for top jobs, mandate inclusive hiring practices, and champion sponsorship and flexibility as strategic priorities. Ultimately, building a more balanced CEO pipeline will require all stakeholders to step up. 

Women with aspirations to lead must also challenge their own “not ready yet” mindset. As one experienced female CEO advised her peers: “You don’t have to hit ten out of ten. You can get eight right – and learn the other two.” 

In other words, don’t self-select out. If an opportunity arises and you find yourself thinking, “Why me?”, reframe it as “Why not me?”