Every year on Women’s Day, the commitment to advancing women in leadership is renewed, and reasons for it are revisited. Yet the data continues to tell a stubborn story. The number of women in leadership remains largely unchanged, and there is growing concern that the leadership pipeline remains leaky. While women are entering some workplaces in larger numbers, they remain underrepresented in middle and senior leadership.
One intervention that has been gaining momentum over the past few years is the introduction of exclusive women-only leadership programmes designed for middle to senior women leaders. These programmes often attract mixed reactions. Some see them as necessary interventions. Others view them with scepticism, questioning whether leadership training should be different for women at all. Some even ask why women should be given what they perceive as “sops”, reviving the age-old debate between equality and equity.
Our research over the past few months sought to explore the question: What is the logic behind women-only leadership development programmes? Through a series of interviews with scores of practitioners who have spent years designing and delivering women’s leadership programmes, leaders of organisations who sponsor such programmes, and participants, we began to see the emergence of a narrative that reframes the conversation on women’s leadership development. Rather than being sporadic or symbolic initiatives, these programmes emerge as necessary and intentionally designed interventions.
The women-only leadership programmes help women to learn skills, question some of their beliefs, and bolster the confidence and action required to become more visible and considered for leadership roles in organisations that were historically designed around male career trajectories and sensibilities. Sociologist Joan Acker wrote in 1990 that organisations are designed for able-bodied men who come out to work from 9 to 5 and have a wife taking care of them, their homes, children, and parents. In essence, her work highlighted the gendered nature of organisations.
Women often enter organisations carrying expectations shaped by years of socialisation. They may hesitate to articulate ambition, avoid taking visible risks, or feel pressure to balance assertiveness with likability. The beliefs held are rarely conscious, and yet they influence how leadership aspirations and behaviours among women are expressed. Women-only leadership programmes create opportunities where, in addition to the focus on technical leadership competencies, there is space to examine and unpack old beliefs and learn new ones.
In addition to the content, women-only leadership programmes often generate psychologically safe spaces where learning can deepen and more risks can be taken. Even facilitators of such women-only programmes noted that they were able to challenge women participants more openly than in mixed groups. The safe space that emerges helps women be vulnerable, which is often the starting point for deeper learning and genuine behavioural change. Participants of women-only programmes also shared that the “need for posturing” was reduced, and they could be candid and learn from one another’s experiences.
Several of the people we interviewed said that the leadership programmes, which are conceived as a journey rather than a short four- or five-day training, help participants to pause, reflect on themselves, accept new perspectives, experiment with different behaviours, recognise the commonality of their experiences, and experience the role models. The longer programmes help women to find allies, experience mentoring, and attract sponsorship from senior leaders.
Participants of women-only leadership programmes described how their personal beliefs were challenged when they encountered a senior woman, a participant in the programme, sitting next to them, occupying roles that had traditionally been held by men. These encounters were often transformative, making their ambition for reaching leadership positions more attainable
A senior leader we spoke to summarised another important dimension through what she called the “three Ms” derailer: Marriage, mobility, and maternity are not the same for men and women, and can quietly disadvantage women at precisely the moment they are expected to step into larger roles. Mobility expectations, caregiving responsibilities, and cultural norms around family roles continue to influence who remains in the pipeline and who quietly exits it. Thus, “programmes that focus on women leaders is not special treatment. It is about enabling 50 percent of the workforce to overcome barriers and reach their potential.”
Seen in this light, women-only leadership programmes are not about handing out a sop or treating women as individuals who need fixing. They are about equipping women with the tools, both personal and professional, along with the sponsorship and visibility required to navigate the realities of social and organisational life so that they can ask for, be considered for, and ultimately occupy leadership positions. The embarking on women-only leadership programmes is also signals about how organisations understand leadership itself. When leadership development assumes a neutral professional environment, it risks overlooking the structural realities that shape women’s careers.
Women’s Day often invites organisations to celebrate progress. Celebration matters. But reflection matters more. If leadership is to expand meaningfully, organisations must create environments where women not only enter the pipeline but remain within it. When designed thoughtfully and supported seriously, women’s leadership programmes can help transform the leadership pipeline from one that steadily narrows into one that genuinely expands. For organisations committed to building diverse leadership pipelines, the invitation includes: Invest in preparing women leaders while simultaneously creating structural support, visible opportunities, and deliberate sponsorship.
Vohra is professor, Organisational Behaviour, IIMA and chair at the Ashank Desai Centre for Leadership and Organisational Development, IIMA. Sud is assistant professor of Organisational Behaviour at Masters’ Union
