Inside the "Great Breakup," and what it means for the women who stay

In 2022, the year Lean In and McKinsey coined the phrase "Great Breakup," two women directors were walking out for every one a company promoted. Few of them had any intention of walking away from paid work entirely. They were leaving the building, taking their badge and their institutional memory with them, while the company moved just one woman up.

Why this lands so hard

Director is the rung where the hardest work is supposed to be behind you. Somehow you pushed through the first stretch, the calculations around parental leave, and the supervisor who took you for the new hire. You hold the title and the budget. That is exactly the level where women were leaving at twice the rate they advanced. The loss did not happen at the entry point of the talent funnel. It happened later, at the stage where the firm had already poured significant resources into developing that person.

This pattern is not confined to coastal headquarters. Here in Greater Cincinnati, where major employers like Procter & Gamble, Kroger and GE Aerospace anchor the local economy, the same question applies: when a senior woman walks out the door, what does the organization actually lose?

Where the number comes from, and what it cannot tell you

The figure comes from the 2022 edition of Women in the Workplace, the annual study by Lean In and McKinsey, and it drew wide coverage, including from Katie Couric Media. It deserves some caution. It is a single year's ratio, drawn from companies that opt into the study, which tend to be large and American. "Leaving" means leaving that particular employer, not abandoning corporate life. Some of those directors took a bigger director role across town, a gain for them and a loss only for the firm that let them go.

Data from the 2025 report indicate that the same underlying trend is still very much present. For every 100 men promoted to manager, 93 women are promoted, and for women of color that figure falls to 74. Eighty percent of women say they want a promotion, compared with 86 percent of men, and that gap closes when women receive equal support. The ambition is present. Support is the variable that changes outcomes.

Try imagining it from within her position.

Imagine you are a director in a Cincinnati company. Over the last year and a half, two of the four women working alongside you at your rank have resigned. One of them took a bigger role at a rival firm. Another launched her own venture. During the leadership retreat, the chief people officer presents a chart on retention without mentioning either departure by name. It dawns on you that you are the highest-ranking woman left in that meeting, yet nobody has asked what would keep you from leaving too.

Consider what this costs the women still working in Greater Cincinnati.

Staying after a wave of departures is not the risk-free option it appears to be. You have landed in a bargaining situation you never realized was underway. The organization has just seen its investment leave the building, and it understands that the next exit might be yours. That hands you some bargaining power, though its window will not stay open forever. A year from now the departures will be old news, and your continued presence will be booked as loyalty, the least expensive thing an employer can receive.

Staying also tends to shift more work onto you. With fewer senior women around, the requests multiply: another panel, another mentoring session, "could you join this for a bit." None of that counts toward a promotion, yet all of it now lands on your desk.

Here is how to respond to it.

Open the retention talk in Cincinnati this month, since the employer, as it turns out, is the one who should have raised it first, and there is no reason to wait for next quarter. You could put it this way: "Two of my colleagues have moved on this year. I want to stay and grow here. What is the plan for my next role, and what is the timeline?" An employer that intends to keep you will respond with a specific role and a date. A firm that does not will answer with compliments instead. Both replies are informative, but only the first one saves you another year of waiting.

If your firm lost women directors during the year, has anyone approached you about staying?