If Part Time is not Part Potential... Why do we keep treating it like that?

Did you know one of the most overlooked drivers of the gender pay gap is part-time work?

And not because it exists.

But because of how we treat the people who choose it.

McKinsey’s latest research spells it out:

🔍 1 in 3 women in the workforce works part-time.
🔍 Only 1 in 10 men does.
🔍 And when women take on reduced hours, their careers often get reduced too.

This has a direct and compounding effect on the career of women, and it adds up with every passing year resulting in 👇

- Less access to leadership roles.
- Fewer development opportunities.
- And slower progression, even when capability and performance are the same.

Flexibility should be a growth platform—not a career cliff.

This isn't about changing how women work.

It's about changing how organisations value that work.

After decades advising global businesses—and helping close gender pay gaps to single digits—I’ve seen this pattern across sectors and geographies:

👉 We create flexibility policies, but not flexibility pathways.
👉 We accommodate life, but don’t advance careers.
👉 And in doing so, we quietly lock out top talent from the leadership track.

That’s why in my whitepaper Closing the Gender Pay Gap: A Strategic Guide for C-Suite and Board Leaders, I emphasize this principle:

"Support for carers must go hand-in-hand with leadership acceleration—not leadership trade-offs."

Here’s how to start turning flexibility into a leadership advantage:

🛠 1. Audit Progression by Workload Type
Do part-time or flexible employees progress at the same rate as full-time peers?
If not, why not?

Start tracking leadership nominations, promotion rates, and stretch assignments by contract type. That data will show you where the real barriers are.

🛠 2. Build Career-Positive Flexibility
Design flexible roles that still offer:

• Visibility

• Sponsorship

• Development pathways

• Access to strategic projects

Create job structures where performance, not presence, drives advancement.

🛠 3. Make Flex the Norm, Not the Exception
When flexibility is positioned as a special accommodation, it becomes a marker of lesser ambition.

Shift the narrative.
Normalise flexibility as part of high-performance leadership.
Ensure it’s built into succession planning and leadership readiness frameworks—not bolted on afterward.

If you’ve been treating flexibility as a perk, it’s time to start treating it as a strategy.

📩 I’ve captured the exact steps—plus a 5-minute Health Check for leadership development—let me know if you would like a copy.

Let’s stop penalising care—and start rewarding capability.