Why Companies Lose Women Before Leadership - And Don’t See It

Why Companies Lose Women Before They Reach Leadership

Most companies don’t lose women at the top.

They lose them one level before.

By the time leadership quotas kick in, it’s already too late.

In a recent conversation with Florence Masquin, who has advised companies on diversity, inclusion and leadership pipelines for over 25 years, one insight stood out:

The biggest drop-off doesn’t happen at entry level.
It doesn’t happen at middle management.

It happens between manager → manager of managers.

That’s the level just below executive leadership.

And that’s where the pipeline thins out.

The illusion of the quota fix

In France, companies now face concrete targets:

• 30% women in executive bodies by 2026

• 40% by 2029

On paper, this creates urgency.

In practice, many organizations discover something uncomfortable:

They don’t have enough women at the level just below Comex to promote.

The problem isn’t the final quota.

It’s the pipeline 3–5 years earlier.

Where the pipeline actually breaks

The break isn’t about competence.

It’s about structure.

At the “manager of managers” level:

• Responsibility increases sharply

• Availability expectations spike

• Travel and visibility increase

• Informal norms about over-investment intensify

And this often coincides with:

• Parental leave

• Young children

• Dual-career trade-offs

This is not coincidence.

It’s structural timing.

The quiet moment that changes trajectories

A manager returns from maternity leave.

Her manager decides — often with good intentions — not to propose a promotion.

“I don’t want to put her under pressure.”
“She probably wants stability.”
“Let’s wait a year.”

That year becomes two.

Momentum slows.

Ambition gets questioned — not by her, but by the system.

Twelve to eighteen months later, she leaves.

Quietly.

The company calls it natural attrition.

The cost no one calculates

The leave itself is rarely the real cost.

The real cost shows up later:

• Lost leadership pipeline

• Succession instability

• Replacement hiring

• Delayed projects

• Cultural signal to the next generation

Most companies measure leave duration.

Few measure return quality.

Even fewer measure post-return progression.

Almost none connect leave transitions to executive pipeline health.

Availability norms are the hidden filter

Many senior roles still implicitly require 60-hour availability.

That model may have worked when leadership was built around one primary earner per household.

It breaks in dual-career couples.

When both partners work, both cannot over-invest indefinitely.

Statistically, it is still more often women’s careers that absorb the adjustment.

Not because of lack of ambition.

Because of structural expectations.

If men can’t take leave, women pay the price

When fathers are discouraged — subtly or explicitly — from taking full paternity leave, imbalance begins immediately.

If men cannot step back without penalty, women compensate.

That compensation accumulates.

By the time leadership promotions are discussed, the gap is already structural.

This is not an HR issue

It’s a business continuity issue.

Leadership pipelines are infrastructure.

Temporary absences — maternity, paternity, sabbatical — are predictable.

Yet most companies treat them as one-off disruptions instead of designed transitions.

Improvisation at these moments doesn’t just affect a quarter.

It affects leadership composition five years later.

A more uncomfortable question

If your company is targeting 40% women in executive leadership by 2029:

• How many women are currently at “manager of managers” level?

• How many took leave in the last 3 years?

• How many were promoted within 18 months of return?

• How many left within 18 months?

If you don’t know, you don’t have a quota problem.

You have a visibility problem.

Equality doesn’t fail at intention.

It fails at execution.

Final thought

Most organizations try to fix equality at the top.

The real work happens in the middle.

Three years earlier.

In moments that look operational — but are strategic.

If you're reviewing your leadership targets for 2026 or 2029,
start by revisiting your last parental leave transition.

That’s often where the story really begins.