Diversity Council CEO Committee at Danmarks Nationalbank

We were pleased to be joined by Maria del Mar Martinez, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and co-author of ‘The Broken Rung’, who shared insights on the challenges women face at the first step into management and what organisations can do to address them. As highlighted in the session, women today have achieved educational parity (57% of bachelor’s degrees) and 75% aspire to senior leadership, yet progression breaks at the critical first step to manager. This “broken rung” has long-term consequences, with gaps that do not recover later in careers.
Maria underscored that progress requires a more targeted approach, grounded in identifying and measuring specific organisational pain points, and acting on them.
The conversation was followed by a panel discussion with Maria, Ulrik Nødgaard, Governor of Danmarks Nationalbank, and Hans Henrick Berendtsen, CEO of ISS A/S Denmark, who explored how organisations can strengthen leadership pipelines, address systematic barriers such as dynamics of dual-career couples and the importance of sustained leadership commitment.
A sincere thank you to Danmarks Nationalbank for hosting us, and to all the leaders who contributed so openly to the discussion.