The 20s Trap — Why the Gender Pay Gap Starts Early, Not Late

And three actions to close it.

If you think the gender pay gap starts in senior leadership, you're already 10 years too late.

The truth is:

📍 The gap starts widening by the late 20s.
📍 Career progression, leadership opportunity, and earning power diverge well before 30.
📍 And by 39, the gap is locked in.

If we want to close it sustainably, we must act much earlier—and act differently.

Here are the three actions every CEO, Board, and CPO should take early:

✅ Set leadership targets early—not just for executives, but for every critical career stage.
✅ Accelerate women into leadership pathways before life events intervene.
✅ Design flexibility without career penalties—or risk losing your future leaders.

McKinsey’s latest research highlights what many of us have seen first-hand:

🔍 Between ages 29–39, women’s career trajectories flatten while men’s accelerate.
🔍 Career breaks, caregiving, and mobility barriers create invisible divergence.
🔍 The system—not women’s ambition—is the real gap.

After three decades helping close these gaps—and winning national awards doing it—I know this much:

If you’re not investing in women’s leadership by their late 20s, you’re already behind.

In my whitepaper Closing the Gender Pay Gap: A Strategic Guide for C-Suite and Board Leaders, I share what forward-thinking organisations are doing differently. Here's a glimpse:

🛠 Action #1: Set Leadership Targets Early:
1. Set aspirational goals for women in early and mid-career stages—not just the executive level
🎯 Targets must cascade through the pipeline, not hover at the top

🛠 Action #2: Build Leadership Pathways Before Life Events:
1. Leadership readiness assessments must start before the mid-30s squeeze.
2. Identify and sponsor high-potential women early
3. Create individualised development plans that adapt to life transitions
4. Make sponsorship—not mentorship—the standard

🌱 Leadership should grow around life events, not in spite of them.

🛠 Action #3: Redesign Flexibility as a Growth Accelerator
1. Flexibility must accelerate careers, not stall them
2. Offer leadership pathways even in flexible roles
3. Build structured return-to-career programs
4. Make flexibility part of the leadership track itself

🛤 Flexibility should be a platform for growth, not a detour.

The leadership gap doesn’t start at the top.

It starts much earlier—and it’s built quietly, choice by choice, missed opportunity by missed opportunity.

Let’s stop gaps before they even start.