Special edition
September 2026
New national research with Women’s Agenda
Ambition isn’t the problem.
Invisibility is.
We’ve been told women self-select out of leadership. 372 women told us something else.
55% want a promotion in the next three years
12% say a lack of skills or experience is what’s holding them back
Half the women surveyed are more than 15 years into their careers.
Cultivate Sponsorship: Activating visibility, advocacy, and advancement for underrepresented and high-potential talent to empower organisations to retain and promote leaders from within.
A note from Kat
Katriina Tahka, Managing Director
We’ve spent years hearing that women self-select out of leadership. This year, with Women’s Agenda, we asked women what was really going on, and they told us the opposite. The ambition is there, and it’s senior. What’s missing is structure: clear pathways, and the right people hearing what women want.
What really made me feel sad was the loud sentiment that trust is also gone for many people, like the woman who shared: “You keep your ambitions to yourself because you don’t know who you can trust.”
This month’s email is dedicated to what they told us. I hope you’ll read it and pass it on.
Hear it from Kat
Clear plans, half the voice.
The findings
What we heard.
And for the first time, we looked at what women experienced through a culturally diverse and First Nations lens.
A quarter of respondents identified as culturally or linguistically diverse, and where their answers tell a different story, you’ll see it alongside the findings below. First Nations women told us their lived experience and understanding of cultural safety is an extra skill set they bring to work, and one employers often don’t acknowledge.
We’ve been told
“It’s a confidence or skills gap.”
What the data says
The barriers are structural.
What’s getting in the way of your next promotion?
A lack of clear options: 43%
A lack of visibility at work: 37%
Insufficient skills or experience: 12%
Competition for the role, caring responsibilities, discrimination and a lack of flexible work were also named as meaningful barriers.
The barrier isn’t capability. It’s what the organisation makes possible, and who it sees.
Through a culturally diverse lens
43% of culturally diverse women say they have clarity over their career options, almost double the 25% across the whole survey. They’re planning further ahead too: 41% have a two-to-five-year plan, against 28% overall.
We’ve been told
“If you want to move up, tell your manager.”
What the data says
Ambition stops at the line manager.
Who women tell about their career ambitions
Their immediate manager: ~55%
Their family: ~50%
Senior leaders and industry leaders
Far less often
63% say their employer doesn’t offer adequate mentoring or sponsorship for women.
“If the people who could sponsor you never hear your ambition, sponsorship can’t happen by accident. It has to be built.”
Katriina Tahka, Cultivate Sponsorship
Through a culturally diverse lens
Only 26% of culturally diverse women voice their ambitions to their immediate manager, against around 55% overall. Instead, 60% talk to friends outside work and in their industry. The conversation is happening, just not where decisions get made.
The culturally diverse group is a smaller sample, so read these differences as directional.
We’ve been told
“Support for women at work only moves forward.”
What the data says
Women say employers are stepping back.
Pulled back. Say their employer stepped back from initiatives supporting women in the past year.
Can do more. Say their employer can do more on gender equality in leadership. The most one-sided result in the survey.
“Pulling back now, at the exact moment this survey shows women are asking for more, is the wrong direction.”
Katriina Tahka, Cultivate Sponsorship
Only in the full report
There’s more we haven’t shown you here.
- The full culturally diverse picture. How they plan, where they look for support, and how they see their employers.
- First Nations voices on the skills they bring and the load they carry.
- Why age stands out as the factor shaping how women’s abilities are seen.
- Women’s voices behind the data, in their own words.
- Four things employers can do now.
Where sponsorship fits
Mentoring gives you advice. Sponsorship gives you advocacy.
A sponsor uses their own credibility to open a door you can’t open yourself. Willow and Warra build that structure into organisations, pairing high-potential women and First Nations talent with senior leaders who advocate for them.
73% of our sponsees stay in contact with their sponsor after the program ends
90% rate that relationship good to excellent
Explore Willow → Explore Warra →
Bring the findings to your leadership team
We’ll run a 30-minute briefing on the report for your leadership team, or a webinar, depending on your audience. Let’s work together.
Coming up in October
Through a culturally diverse lens
Same ambition, clearer plans, and a very different conversation at work. Next month we go deeper into what culturally diverse women told us, and what it means for how organisations find and back their talent.
Thank you for being part of the Cultivate community. Let’s keep building pathways for growth together.