That’s a notable finding given the current thinking on the roots of the ambition gap. A popular, and more stereotypical explanation says that while many women start off their careers eager to climb the corporate ranks, that quality diminishes over time because of family obligations or feeling that they’re unfairly held to higher standards. When women reach their 30s, many start having children, and—whether as a direct result or not—some drop out of the workforce altogether.

While some of those factors may come into play, the researchers argue that women are ambitious, but they’re also rational and thus respond to the work environments they’re in. For example, if women receive signals from their employer that they’re never going to make it to the top no matter what, they’d likely make the reasonable decision to leave or choose a different path where they’re more likely to be rewarded. “You look at a set of tradeoffs and choices. They make choices based on what seems to have the highest utility, if you put it in economic terms,” said Frances Taplett, a director at BCG and one of the co-authors of the study.

Matt Krentz, a senior partner at BCG, said that the impetus for the study came from internal discussions about how to retain women and increase representation at the company’s most senior levels. As such, the researchers targeted the pockets of the company where there have been different outcomes to look at what these teams were doing that resulted in greater reported desire from female employees to rise the ranks.

“You end up with women leaving the organization, going elsewhere, because they don’t see the opportunity,” explained Krentz. “But it also leads to them fundamentally feeling disenfranchised. When you do that, you see people feeling less ambitious about what they feel they can achieve, which is what we saw.”

The report’s findings are in some ways very encouraging, indicating that there’s something managers can do to help. The first task is to recognize what probably won’t work: “Telling women simply to try harder at a game in which the rules are stacked against them may create some fantastic, isolated successes—but it may not lead to a meaningful breakthrough,” wrote the authors.

While institutional initiatives, such as programs to promote diversity and diverse leadership are important, day-to-day interactions which signal to all genders that the company is interested in nurturing female employees may make a big difference. The little things add up: The attitude of managers, the career advice people receive, and the comments they hear can all imply messages about the fairness of a workplace. Krentz and Taplett says that the main takeaway is not to assume that women aren’t competitive or don’t want senior roles. Instead, they say companies should focus on creating an environment that feels fair and equitable.

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