“From corporate boardrooms to the halls of Congress, from universities to the courts, from religious institutions to philanthropic organizations, men are simply much more likely than women to be leaders.” This, according to a new report from the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

This isn’t news to anyone who has been paying attention, but this new study does bring the persistence and complexity of such underrepresentation into more focus.

The report, titled “Barriers and Bias: The Status of Women in Leadership,” examines the environment where leadership develops and was written by AAUW vice president for research Catherine Hill; senior researcher Kevin Miller; research associate Kathleen Benson; and research intern Grace Handley. They contend that no amount of leaning in can close the systemic gender gap in the top ranks of organizations. That’s partly because factors such as race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and age make for unique experiences for any women who tries to rise to leadership.

“There must be something inherent in the system that’s working against them,” the authors write, because we know that this is not a pipeline problem. There are more women working today than ever before (55% of the total global workforce). Women earn the majority of university degrees according to data from Census reports. And both men and women score similarly in their ability to drive business, according to a study by DDI.

Yet female leadership numbers remain dismal. According to Catalyst only 5% of companies in Standard and Poor’s 500 had women CEOs in 2015. Similar disparities occur in the nonprofit sector, government, unions, religious institutions, and academia. “Subtler problems like hostile work environments, negative stereotypes about women in leadership, and bias also keep women out of the top spots,” they write, “Unconscious or implicit bias can cloud judgment in ways people are not fully aware of.”

“Once a stereotype has been adopted, it becomes a filter through which we selectively recall and use information.”

For women of color, this gap is even wider. Fewer than 3% of board directors at Fortune 500 companies are Asian, black, and Hispanic women, according to the Catalyst report. These minority groups of women make up 17% of workers in S&P 500 companies but fewer than 4% of executive officials and managers. While data about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) women leaders isn’t readily available, the report’s authors cite a recent study that revealed women who identified as LGBT on their resumes received 30% fewer callbacks than other women.

The report’s authors point out that gender, race, and age are often subject to stereotyping. Even positive stereotypes can hurt, such as when a man doesn’t exhibit the typical aggression often assigned to male leadership. On the flip side, women are assumed to be caregivers and therefore given an armload of “housekeeping” tasks in the office –even by other women. Then, the damage is done. “Once a stereotype has been adopted, it becomes a filter through which we selectively recall and use information,” the authors write.