GEN Z WOMEN WANT TO LEAD – BUT AREN’T SURE WORKPLACES WANT THEM TO…


Dr Marie-Claire Isaaman, CEO of Women in Games, looks at new research on Gen Z women’s leadership ambitions – and asks what it means for an industry where women’s representation continues to fall as they move towards positions of power and influence


W


hy do fewer young women aspire to reach the top of organisations? It is tempting to


frame the answer in terms of ambition. But new research from Lean In – the not-for- profit organisation co-founded by former Meta boss Sheryl Sandberg – suggests we should ask a different question: do young women believe organisations actually want them to lead? Lean In’s Gen Z Women and Leadership


research found that 58% of Gen Z women surveyed want to become a senior executive one day, compared with 74% of Gen Z men. Yet among women who believe workplaces


genuinely want women in leadership, that figure rises to 74% – exactly matching Gen Z men. The ambition gap disappears. That finding has particular resonance


for the games industry and the issues highlighted in our recent Women in Games Insight Report, The Drop-Off: Women in Games from Players to Power and Capital. The Drop-Off examines how women’s


representation declines as we move from participation towards greater levels of influence, leadership, ownership and access to capital. Women account for around half of games players, yet their representation falls significantly among those leading companies, owning businesses and accessing investment. Lean In’s findings raise an important


question: at what point do young women see that drop-off – and what does seeing it do to their expectations?


SEEING A ROUTE TO LEADERSHIP Representation at senior levels sends a message. So does its absence. Young women


16 | MCV/DEVELOP September/October 2026


entering games can see who occupies senior positions, who gets promoted, whose companies receive investment and whose ideas are backed. The leadership gap identified in The Drop-


Off therefore isn’t simply an outcome at the end of someone’s career. It can potentially influence how women imagine their futures from the beginning. Encouragingly, however, ambition isn’t


fixed. Lean In found that 26% of Gen Z women are ‘maybes’ when it comes to leadership, with only 3% saying nothing could persuade them to pursue it. Significant financial reward was the biggest incentive, cited by 54%, followed by work that continues to develop skills and expertise at 45%. Women who have already reached senior


leadership also identify strong professional networks and flexible working among the factors that helped them succeed. For games employers, the lesson is that pathways towards leadership must be created


throughout women’s careers, through access to networks, sponsorship, flexibility, development and visible opportunities to progress.


RETHINKING LEADERSHIP There is another important message in the research. Among Gen Z respondents who did not want leadership, women and men gave remarkably similar reasons. Some 41% of women and 40% of men said the hours and stress weren’t worth it, while 37% of women and 34% of men wanted to prioritise life outside work. Perhaps, then, we also need to reconsider


what leadership looks like. If seniority means excessive hours, unsustainable pressure and sacrificing life outside work, younger people may decide the prize simply isn’t worth the cost. The Drop-Off asks a fundamental


question: as games grows, who benefits from that growth? Recruiting more women matters, but


recruitment alone cannot create equality if their representation steadily diminishes on the journey towards decision-making power. We need workplaces where women


can see a credible path from entering games to leading within it – and genuine opportunities to found, own and scale businesses too. And, ultimately, the industry needs to show young women that it wants them to succeed…


You can read the Women in Games Insight Report: The Drop-Off:


Women in Games from Players to Power and Capital by visiting womeningames.org


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