Building Family-Friendly Cultures That Enable Women to Stay, Grow and Lead
Recent findings from the Women in the Workplace 2025 report by McKinsey highlight just how fragile the female talent pipeline remains. Women make up 49% of entry-level roles, yet their representation drops sharply to 29% at C-suite level.
That drop doesn’t happen because women stop being capable. Or because they stop caring. It often happens because, at key points in life and work, the support around them just isn’t strong enough.
Family-friendly cultures aren’t built on policy documents
Most organisations we work with have good intentions — and many have improved policies over the last few years. But a family-friendly culture isn’t defined by what’s written down.
It’s defined by what happens in real life:
- When someone is returning from parental leave
- When they’re exhausted and trying to find their feet again
- When they’re questioning their confidence
- When they’re quietly deciding whether leadership still feels possible
- When they’re wondering if it’s “too soon” to ask for a promotion
These are the moments that shape careers.
At Parent & Professional we call them moments that matter — because how an organisation shows up in these moments is often what determines whether someone stays, grows, and feels able to lead.
What women tell us when support is done well
“I really didn’t expect it to be like this. I knew it would be useful but didn’t realise it would be so bespoke and what the sheer impact of it would be. It really was phenomenal.”
When support is truly tailored, it helps people deal with what’s actually happening — not what we assume should be happening.
It starts as return-to-work… and can quickly become long-term career development
A lot of organisations treat parental leave as a “pause” in someone’s career. But most returning parents don’t want to pause. They just need the right support to rebuild confidence and momentum.
One coachee recently shared something that stayed with us:
“I wanted to share the good news that I have just been promoted to Senior Counsel! I wouldn’t have dreamed of asking for a promotion in my first year back from leave, but you queried that thinking in one of our sessions… So, I went for it and I’m so pleased I did.”
This is exactly the point. It’s not that women don’t want to progress — it’s that many women return to work assuming they shouldn’t ask for more yet. They hold back. They wait. They focus on “being grateful” rather than being recognised.
Sometimes what they need most is someone to gently challenge that story.
The confidence shift is often the biggest outcome
Many women come into coaching with a practical goal: “I want a smoother return” or “I want to feel less overwhelmed.”
But the biggest change is often confidence — and the permission to think bigger again.
“My coach’s input to my return to work has been immensely valuable and has given me the confidence to see my career path in a slightly different light.”
And this:
“She challenged me to see things differently which has been the biggest outcome from my sessions — both personally in terms of handling the ‘mum guilt’ of returning to work and professionally in my ability to push for a promotion.”
That sentence captures so much of what’s really going on.
We can’t talk about women’s progression without talking about the emotional load many women carry — and how quickly it can affect confidence, ambition and visibility.
When support works, it keeps women in the pipeline
This is why family-friendly support matters.
When women don’t feel supported, they often don’t leave loudly. They leave gradually:
- They step back from opportunities
- They stop putting themselves forward
- They decide leadership isn’t worth the cost
- They choose a role that feels more manageable (but smaller than their potential)
When they do feel supported, we see the opposite.
“The coaching started off helping me return to work — and then ended up supporting me to get a promotion!”
And:
“My coach has been absolutely fundamental in helping me have a successful return, and in moving my career forwards. I will definitely use my coach again… and would recommend her to anyone else navigating the same.”
This is what organisations are really investing in when they invest in coaching support:
- Retention
- Confidence
- Progression
- Leadership readiness
So what does a truly family-friendly culture look like?
It looks like support that meets people where they are — and helps them move forward.
It looks like:
- Leaders who know how to have real conversations
- Return-to-work support that is personal, not generic
- A culture where it’s normal to discuss ambition after leave, not “brave”
- Proactive support at the moments that matter, not just when someone is struggling
And most importantly, it looks like women being able to stay in the organisation and keep moving.
Because staying isn’t the goal. Staying and growing is.
If we want more women in leadership, the answer isn’t telling women to “lean in” harder.
It’s building workplaces that make it genuinely possible to stay, grow and lead — without having to sacrifice wellbeing, confidence or family life along the way.
That’s what family-friendly cultures do best.
If you’re looking to create a workplace where people feel genuinely seen, supported, and valued – we’d love to chat.
Let’s build that future, together.