Inside the "Great Breakup," and what it means for the women who stay
Back in 2022, which Lean In and McKinsey dubbed the "Great Breakup," for each woman promoted to director, two others were heading for the exit. Those women did not abandon paid work entirely. They were leaving the building, taking their badge and their institutional knowledge with them, for each one the company advanced.
Its key advantage
Director is the rung where the hardest stretch was supposed to be behind you. Somewhere in Richmond or Henrico, you have already survived the first stretch of your career, the arithmetic of maternity leave, and the manager who took you for an intern. You hold the title and the budget. That is exactly the level where women were exiting at double the rate they were being elevated. The leak was never at the bottom of the pipeline, where women simply fell away. It was draining at the point where the company had already spent heavily to fill it.
Where the number originates, and the gaps it leaves behind.
That number traces back to the 2022 edition of Women in the Workplace, the annual report produced by Lean In and McKinsey, which won broad attention, Katie Couric Media among those covering it. The caveats count. It is a single year's ratio, drawn from companies that opt in, a group that tends to be large and American. "Departing" only refers to quitting that one company, not the whole corporate world. Some of those directors took a director post at a rival firm across town, a win for them and a loss only for the company that let them go. Looking at the 2025 report, the same underlying trend is still very much present. Among every 100 men advanced to manager, the comparable figure for women is 93, and for women of color it drops to 74. Eighty percent of women say they want to move up, compared with 86 percent of men, and that gap vanishes when support is equal. The ambition is present. Support is the deciding factor.
Imagine seeing it from the inside.
Your appointment places you at the head of a department. Over the past year and a half, two of the four women who share your level have walked away from their roles. One of them moved to a rival company for a loftier post. One launched her own venture. During the leadership offsite in Glen Allen, the chief people officer presents a retention slide and avoids naming either woman. Sitting there, you notice you are now the most senior woman in the room, and nobody has raised the question of what would keep you from following them.
What the women remaining in Richmond should take away
Hanging on through a string of departures is hardly the safe choice it looks like. It is a negotiation you never agreed to. Having just seen its investment slip away, the company is acutely aware that you could be the next to go. That hands you real leverage, though leverage tends to expire. Within a year, those departures will have faded from memory, and your continued presence will be filed as loyalty, the least expensive asset an employer can hold.
Additional responsibilities will also fall to you. Fewer senior women means more panels, more mentoring requests, more "could you sit in on this." None of it earns a promotion, and all of it is now yours.
What comes after
Start the retention conversation they should have started already, and start it this month, not next quarter. You might say something like, "Two of my peers have left this year. I want to stay. What does my next role look like, and by when?" An employer intent on retaining you will respond with a specific role and a firm date. An employer that is not will respond with compliments instead. Both answers are informative, yet only the first one spares you another year of waiting.
If your organization lost women directors this year, has anyone sat down with you to ask you to stay?