Seventy-seven percent of women believe men have it easier at work than women do. The question is: why?
The short answer is that in 2025, the conversation around gender in the workplace continues to be one of imbalance and slow-moving progress. Despite years of advocacy, many employees—especially women—still feel the effects of deep-rooted biases and structural barriers.
To better understand these experiences, we gathered firsthand accounts from employees across industries. Their anonymous insights paint a picture of the ways gender impacts professional growth, recognition, and daily workplace dynamics.
Power and pay: who gets ahead?
One of the most common themes in our survey responses was the disparity in promotions and pay. Many women reported working harder than their male counterparts for similar recognition, yet men continued to be promoted more quickly and earn higher salaries.
“Where I work, men are constantly being promoted, having only worked at the job for 2-5 yrs. The women have to work 10+ yrs to get a promotion.”
“More men are promoted to positions of authority. Women have to work far harder to be noticed or respected unless they are flirtatious with higher-ups.”
“There is definitely an imbalance. The men are in more positions of power whereas the women are the ones who get things done.”
“Women face much more adversity and have to work harder for similar recognition, promotion or pay than our male counterparts. I’m more qualified than 95 percent of the people a level above me and with far greater experience but because they’re male and we’re in a ‘good old boys’ club still, I have to work much much harder.”
“In my field, there is a much larger male presence than woman presence. Since most management is also predominantly male, this makes it really difficult for women to create the same relationships with the management as men. This causes a much smaller percentage of women in management.”
“Most of the promotions in middle management are going to men despite having highly qualified women as well.”
“While there are a lot of women in my workplace, the positions with the most influence are held by men. Additionally, the women in high positions cater to or mimic their male colleagues.”
The double standards of workplace behavior
Beyond promotions and pay, women frequently noted disparities in how their behavior is perceived compared to their male colleagues and in accountability.
“Men consistently talk over women in meetings and take credit for female employees’ work and ideas, and they are paid more for doing less work. They are never the ones who leave early to pick up/care for a sick child or bring an aging parent to an appointment, and always complain about the women who do such tasks. God help you if you are a woman who arrives a minute late to work due to the childcare drop off line, but men won’t say a single thing to other guys who are late or take extra long lunch breaks. Women are held to a higher standard while men get a free pass for just about everything.”
“It's not that women don't get promoted and put in high-level positions, it's just that they have to prove themselves over and over again, and over a long period of time, before that happens. Men support each other in ways that I wish were similar in women but the fact that there are fewer women in those positions makes it inherently competitive among women which is upsetting. It's not until men support women in the same way they support men when things will start to change. Sadly, I feel like those days may still be far away given the current climate in our society around women's rights and equality.”
“There are certain behaviors we just write off as ‘oh, he’s just a man.’ For women, we have to be assertive and appear bitchy to get ahead in the workplace.”
“People always assume the men know what they're talking about and don't question their comments. But when a woman has an idea it's dismissed and doubted.”
Who does the ‘invisible’ work?
Another recurring frustration among women was the expectation that they take on additional, often unpaid, responsibilities. Office culture committees, event planning, and even simple tasks like cleaning up after meetings tend to fall on women’s shoulders.
“The male-dominated culture definitely prevails in the technology sector. Women are second in line, for example, and asked to take notes in meetings when there are many males very capable of doing just that. Feedback is often coarse, not constructive. There is definitely the ‘guys club’ on Slack.”
“Men are given more opportunities to show their skills on stretch assignments and core assignments. Women typically are only asked to do secretarial type work such as organize a meeting or reconcile the meeting snack purchase. Men are frequently asked to join strategy meetings while at the same time female engineers that should be in the meeting are excluded or don’t even know about the meetings.”
“Office committee and group leadership and participation is still overwhelmingly female. Additional tasks around the office: setup and (especially) cleanup for events and organizing social activities is almost always done by women.”
“Men are given projects with high impact. In my work, my male colleagues get the 1st pick at a high-impact project. If he fails to deliver or fails in specific domains then those domains come to me for improvement, by then the low-hanging fruit is picked and he is known as the owner of that project and I have to do the harder work. He also gets to talk to stakeholders and influential decision-makers.”
Motherhood and career penalties
Motherhood remains a major obstacle to career progression. Women are often penalized—either overtly or subtly—for taking time off to care for children.
“Pay discrimination. Women with children are discriminated against for having life responsibilities. Where men with children are not and pre this is celebrated.”
“Not specific to my workplace, but men have it easier overall in the workplace because they aren't tasked as heavily with managing family/child(ren) responsibilities as women typically are. Working moms require far more workplace flexibility, which we may get, but it tends to come at a cost of perceived value to the company.”
Hope for the future
Despite the bleak picture many respondents painted, there were glimpses of hope. Some workplaces are making meaningful changes, fostering cultures of inclusion and equity.
“I am blessed to have a workplace that practices having a healthy work culture of open communication and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Leadership encourages employees to participate in cultural competency classes that I feel contribute to the positive and engaging work culture.”
The road ahead
Workplace gender disparities are deeply ingrained, shaped by historical norms, cultural expectations, and systemic bias. Change won’t happen overnight, but these conversations matter. By continuing to highlight these disparities and demand better, we can move toward a workplace where gender does not determine one’s success.
Until then, as one respondent put it: “Women have more to juggle. Full stop.”
