Studies have shown that sexual harassment of women in the workplace is as common today as it was five years ago.

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Women in the U.S. now make up nearly 6 in 10 college graduates and half of the workforce, yet many still face bias and other workplace adversities, including rates of sexual harassment that have not improved in five years, according to a new study by consulting firm McKinsey and advisory group Lean In.

The organization’s Women in the Workplace report, now in its 10th year, reveals that while women in corporate America have made some progress, there is a significant lack of progress on many fronts, from lower rates of early-career promotions than men to widespread sexual harassment.

This research provides a sobering assessment of the challenges that remain after years of efforts by women’s rights advocates, corporations, and the #MeToo movement to improve working conditions for women. At the same time, the recent emphasis on diversity, equality and inclusion DEI initiatives threaten the progress women have made in climbing the career ladder.

“I would call it a mixed result for corporate America,” Rachel Thomas, co-founder and CEO of Lean In, told CBS MoneyWatch. “The fact that there’s been a decline in commitment to gender and racial diversity is troubling — we need (corporations) to get on board with the momentum, and they risk falling back.”

Recently, major companies including Ford Motor, Lowe’s and John Deere, withdrew from diversity in the face of conservative criticism.

A new study finds a growing divide between young men and young women when it comes to prioritizing gender and racial diversity. Only 4 in 10 men under 30 now support these efforts, down from about half of young men in 2019. About 7 in 10 young women support prioritizing diversity, little change from five years ago, the study found.

“There is a backlash among people against diversity, equality and inclusion,” Thomas said.

Sexual harassment is still common

The findings also show that sexual harassment is still common in corporate America. About 40% of working women have experienced such treatment during their careers, with symptoms ranging from sexist jokes to obscene comments directed at them, the study found.

The study found that women under 30 are just as likely to experience sexual harassment as women over 30, proving that the scale of the problem has not diminished over the past few years.

“We don’t see any change among younger women in how often they describe experiences of sexual harassment compared to their older colleagues,” Alexis Krivkovich, a senior partner at McKinsey, told CBS MoneyWatch. “That’s incredibly troubling.”

Sexual harassment remains widespread despite the rise of the #MeTo movement in 2017, when a number of high-profile women came forward to expose abuse they experienced at work and demand change in the workplace. Still, only about half of women today say they are confident that their employers would effectively deal with harassment if they reported it, a small change from 2018, the study noted.

“The fact that women are so concerned that if they did report a case it would not be effectively resolved likely leads to many incidents not being reported,” Krivkovich said.

“Women remained ambitious”

Despite these obstacles, women have had success entering corporate leadership roles, Krivkovich said. For example, women now make up 29% of C-suite positions, or top executive positions such as CEO or CFO, up from 17% in 2015, when the Women in the Workplace report debuted.

“We know that women have not lost ambition over the last 10 years, despite the adversity,” Thomas said.

But, Krivkovich added, “once you dig deeper, it becomes clear that these gains are really fragile.”

First, women still stumble across the “broken rung” or fail to advance from their entry-level positions at the same rate as men, the study found. For every 100 men promoted to management in 2024, 81 women did — little change from the 79 women who received a similar promotion in 2018, the study found.

Thomas and Krivkovich argue that young women are most vulnerable to age discrimination, with older managers being prejudiced against them because they believe they lack experience, while young men are often judged by different criteria.

“We know from social science research that we promote men based on potential and women based on prior experience,” Thomas said.

While corporations need to make changes to give women the same opportunities as men, such as introducing a “blind resume review” policy where candidates’ gender and identity are not revealed to hiring managers, women can also take steps to help themselves, Thomas and Krivkovich say.

“Don’t sit around and wait for things to unfold naturally in terms of your sponsorship, your mentoring network, your perceived ambition and the opportunities that come your way,” Krivkovich said. “You have to take a proactive role in all of those things.”