McKinsey & Company today released its latest Women in the Workplace report, extending its landmark research series to Kenya, Nigeria, and India for the first time. Launched at the Africa CEO Forum 2025 today—the continent’s largest private sector convening—the report presents new evidence on the progress and persistent challenges facing women in formal workforces across Kenya.
Surveying 324 organizations across the three countries employing roughly 1.4 million people, the report reveals a critical finding: while Kenya achieves near parity at the entry level, representation sharply declines at successive stages of leadership.
Despite a strong start, with women holding 40% of entry-level roles in Kenya’s private sector and 46% in the public sector, representation declines sharply at each leadership level culminating in only 27% of C-suite roles being held by women.
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“Kenya demonstrates strong gender representation at entry level, but that early progress is not translating into equitable leadership outcomes,” said Mayowa Kuyoro, Partner at McKinsey & Company and co-author of the report. “This is not simply a matter of pipeline strength—it is a structural challenge tied to advancement and retention. Addressing these barriers is essential if organizations are to fully harness the leadership potential of Kenya’s female workforce.”
“The data is clear: while Kenyan women are well-represented at entry levels, structural challenges in advancement, promotion, and retention are preventing that early momentum from translating into leadership equity,” said Kartik Jayaram, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and co-author of the report. “Solving this requires more than good intentions—it calls for institutional commitment, rigorous tracking, and targeted interventions to build pathways to the top.”
Key findings:
Private sector: Women’s representation falls from 40% at the entry-level to 34% at the managerial level, and just 28% at the C-suite – a “double dip” decline.
Public sector: Women maintain steady representation at both entry and management levels (46%), but leadership representation falters to a mere 27% at the C-suite.
Organizations have a retention opportunity: Senior women are 1.4 times more likely than men to exit VP-level, senior manager or director roles.
Policies and practices are correlated with better outcomes in women’s representation across India, Kenya and Nigeria, but successfully implementing them is critical.
There is a set of baseline policies around safety and security and bias mitigation that are correlated with better outcomes for women that are already in place across a wide range of companies.
The report identified a set of differentiator policies that are not yet widely spread but are significantly more prevalent in better-performing companies on gender equity. Among better performing companies:
Flexible work options were 34% more likely to be present
Mentorship and sponsorship policies were 33% more likely to be present
Family and personal care policies were 23% more likely to be present
However, there were still a range of lower performing companies with many of the policies in place, highlighting the critical role of effective implementation.
Moving from Commitment to Action
While 77% of the organizations surveyed report gender diversity as a CEO priority, only 66% have in place basic tracking mechanisms – such as measuring hiring and promotion rates – and a mere 15% of boards hold accountability for gender equity.
Three steps to kickstart progress for organizations
The report proposes a three-part action plan – Diagnose, Design, Monitor – for Kenyan employers to foster progress:
Diagnose pipeline challenges through regular, disaggregated tracking of hiring, promotions, and attrition by gender.
Design: adopt, implement and evolve baseline and differentiator practices, with mentorship, sponsorship, and family care as priorities.
Monitor: Institutionalize tracking mechanisms and accountability at board and senior leadership levels to ensure gender equity is embedded in organizational performance.
The findings paint a picture of strong representation at entry levels for Kenya followed by systemic barriers later on —particularly at the pivotal manager-to-senior executive transition. While Kenya’s strong entry-level representation is encouraging; momentum must be reinforced by structural supports to translate early parity into senior leadership representation.
