Women continue to climb the corporate ladder, but early-career setbacks are holding many back from reaching their full potential, according to the head of one of the world's most prominent women's empowerment organizations.

Bridget Griswold, the 25-year-old CEO of Lean In, said she is already witnessing how early obstacles echo through leadership representation across the country. Speaking onstage at Fortune's annual Most Powerful Women conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Tuesday, she told editorial director Kristin Stoller that the biggest barrier appears at the very start of a woman's career.

"That is a huge problem that women face, and where this is manifesting is in this thing that we call at Lean In, the broken rung," Griswold said. "The broken rung is one of the most entrenched problems that women face, and it's early in their career. It's the first promotion, from entry-level, to manager."

The numbers illustrate the gap. In 2025, only 93 entry-level women were promoted to manager for every 100 entry-level men, according to the annual Women in the Workplace study, which Lean In has produced with consulting firm McKinsey & Company for more than a decade. While that may seem like a small difference, Griswold said the shortfall is the first hurdle in a domino effect that compounds over the course of a career.

"This really matters because if women—if once you don't get that first promotion—it's then really hard to catch up," the Lean In leader said. "We can't fix the problems for underrepresentation of women at the top if we can't fix the broken rung at the bottom."

Mending the rung and leveling the playing field, however, is not impossible. In 2021, Griswold noted, nine out of 10 companies made diversity a priority. That push nearly closed the broken rung for Black women the following year. But without sustained effort in the years since, the problem has reemerged: in 2025, only 60 Black women were promoted for every 100 men.

"These numbers were going in the wrong direction," Griswold said.

While women continue to face barriers to advancement, Griswold's own career trajectory offers a glimpse into what leadership can look like when young women get the opportunity to break through. Her rise to the top of the global nonprofit, which Sheryl Sandberg founded in 2013 after publishing her book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, has been anything but ordinary: Sandberg, the former Meta COO, appointed Griswold to the chief executive role following a brief stint as a Meta product manager. It is extremely rare to see members of Gen Z, the generation born roughly between 1997 and 2012, at the helm of established organizations—particularly ones they did not found themselves. Griswold, however, believes her age is actually an asset in the role.

"I like to believe I'm quite fearless, which I think has treated me well in this role," she said. "And in being young, it really allows me to trust in my leadership team…for a lot of counsel and domain expertise."

As leader of Lean In, Griswold believes women should not have to wait for their turn to lead. Her appointment as CEO drew significant attention, with critics questioning whether she was too young for the job. In response to the scrutiny, Griswold said a conversation with Sandberg illuminated the double standards young women encounter and reinforced the need to change expectations about where they can go.

"When a young man gets a big job in our world, it's not really that interesting, because it happens often," the Gen Z leader said. "When a young woman gets a big job, which happened to me, it's a little more interesting because it's rare. And that is why I do this work: so that when women get big jobs, it won't be something that's surprising. It will just be a matter of fact."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.