A recent study in the U.S. has revealed that female workers’ confidence and ambition decrease the longer they work in an organisation.

The global consulting company, Bain & Company released the findings on a recent study done on ambition within the workforce. The study asked more than 1,000 men and women in a mix of U.S. companies two questions: “Do you aspire to top management within a large company?” and “Do you have the confidence you can reach top management?”. The results showed a significant difference between women who had just started at a company and those that had been there for two years or more.

Women with two years or less of work experience slightly led men in terms of ambition, based on their positive answers to the two questions above. However, for women who had more than two years on the job, aspiration and confidence plummeted to 60% and nearly 50%, respectively. These declines came independent of marriage and motherhood status. Alternately, the male candidates in comparison experienced much smaller changes and only suffered a 10% dip in confidence overall.

When the same two questions were asked more senior managers, the percentage rose for both genders, but women never regained the level of aspiration that newcomers had. It remained 60% lower than men, whose rates shot up. Furthermore, the percentage of male more-senior managers who were confident that they would reach the top jobs was almost twice the percentage of female managers.

Bain & Company then asked the group a second set of questions: Do you see yourself fitting into the typical stereotypes of success within the company?” and “Have your supervisors been supportive of your career aspirations?” New workers of both genders had similar responses to the questions. But more experienced workers answered very differently. Women’s confidence that they matched the corporate ideal dropped by 15 percentage points, men’s by just 9 points. Women’s sense that their supervisors supported their career goals was 20 points lower; men’s was just 3 points lower.

When exploring the reasons for these women’s dashed ambitions, it was established that there wasn’t enough discussions of goals, career strategies, job satisfaction, overall trajectory and—especially—the simple giving of real encouragement, all in a business culture that rarely celebrates women’s role models. This is due partly to the traditional traits that are rewarded within a business model, such as working late, holding the company as your number one priority etc. These are traits many female workers can find difficult to maintain as the majority of female workers are also the primary caregiver within their families and consequently don’t have the time required to invest into the company.

According to Bain & Company it is because of this that men can often receive more frequent recognition and encouragement than their female counterparts. This is a huge missed opportunity, because positive affirmation creates huge benefits. Polls show that both men and women want to work for organisations that recognise talent in all its varieties. Furthermore, having engaged employees assures better business outcomes and more loyal customers.

What this research does indicate is that women within supervisory to middle levels of management may be looking for support and recognition in order to regain the confidence and ambition they had when entering the workforce, in order to climb further up the corporate ladder.

VM Learning have developed their program “Women as Leaders” over the last 25 years for this very reason; to become an outlet for women looking to develop their leadership capability, increase their self awareness and enhance their self-esteem.

By organisations enrolling their female participants in programs like ‘Women As Leaders’, they can help to boost the morale, ambition and confidence levels of their female workers, which in turn can contribute to boosts in productivity and better business outcomes for the organisation.

To read the full findings from the Bain & Company report click here: https://hbr.org/2015/05/companies-drain-womens-ambition-after-only-2-years