Why Early Career Women Are the Missing Link in Gender Equality

 By Tanya Andrews, Founder of Trellis Collective

When we talk about gender equality in the workplace, the conversation usually centers on two key areas: getting more women into male-dominated industries, and supporting mid-career women through leadership development, maternity leave, and retention programs.

These are important, no question. But there’s a crucial piece of the puzzle that remains wildly underappreciated: the women who have just entered the pipeline.

If companies understood how much early career women influence the entire system, they’d rethink their gender equality efforts, and where they’re focusing them, pretty quickly!

--> Before we go any further, I want to acknowledge the critical role that companies, industry culture, and public policy play in the feasibility of women progressing through their careers. We’re not saying the burden lies solely on women. This is a systemic challenge, and it requires systemic solutions. But women, and particularly those in the early stages of their career, don't deserve to be abandoned to 'wait it out' for the 100+ years we're away from the systemic changes we're needing.

The Overlooked Power of Early Career Women

Most organisations focus their diversity efforts on either end of the spectrum:

• Attraction: How do we get more women in the door?
  
• Leadership: How do we retain and promote them into senior roles?
  
  

But in between those two phases is where everything else happens. And that’s where early career women are quietly, and powerfully, shaping the success of any gender equity strategy that follows.

Here’s why this group deserves far more attention than they currently receive:

Retention Starts Early

According to a global survey by PwC, 43% of women believe opportunities to progress are not equal. And many leave long before they even have the chance to move into leadership. In Australia, Engineers Australia reports that while women make up around 15% of engineering graduates, they comprise less than 12% of the workforce, and far fewer in senior roles.

The drop-off starts early. And when women leave in those foundational years, it’s not just a loss of talent, it’s a loss of future leadership.

They Absorb (and Reflect) Workplace Culture

Early career women don’t just observe culture, they absorb it. If they step into environments lacking structure, support, or visible female leadership, they internalise that message. Over time, they either disengage or adapt to “fit in,” both outcomes that ultimately dilute the very diversity we’re trying to build.

They Influence Future Talent Attraction

Workplaces where early career women thrive, where they feel supported, valued, and seen, naturally attract more women. These workplaces become case studies for what’s possible. But when the lived experience doesn’t match the diversity messaging, word spreads just as fast. Future candidates take note.

Small Cracks, Big Consequences

When early career women don’t feel confident, supported, or valued, it doesn’t just affect their individual experience, it affects the entire talent ecosystem that follows.

Here’s what we know:

• Without early development in confidence, communication, and self-advocacy, women are less likely to proactively pursue advancement.
  
• If they leave in the first five years, they’re not around to move into mid- and senior-level leadership.
  
• And when early talent doesn’t feel connected, their likelihood of returning after career breaks diminishes significantly.
  
  

At Trellis, we’ve seen this play out in real time across industries. The more connected, resourced, and understood women feel early on, the more likely they are to stay, and to come back if and when they take time away.

The Case for Earlier Investment

If companies are truly committed to long-term gender equality, they need to stop treating early career women as a box to be ticked at graduate induction, and then revisited five years later when it’s time to fill mid-level leadership roles.

The first few years of a woman’s career aren’t just about learning how to “do the job.” They’re about deciding whether the industry, the company, and the culture are worth staying for.

According to the OECD’s 2022 Gender Equality report, gender gaps in participation and promotion persist, not due to lack of qualifications or ambition, but because of systemic barriers and early career drop-off. Deloitte’s research also shows that women who feel supported early in their careers are significantly more likely to stay with their employer long-term.

Our experience at Trellis mirrors that. When women are supported, guided, and given space to develop early in their careers, we see the ripple effects everywhere:

• Increased leadership ambition
  
• Better retention across business units
  
• Stronger workplace cultures
  
• Better overall performance and innovation
  
  

Fixing the Pipeline Where It Starts

We often hear talk about fixing the “pipeline” of female talent. But pipelines don’t fix themselves, they need to be designed with intention.

And right now, the most vulnerable point in that pipeline is at the start. That’s where uncertainty, low confidence, unclear expectations, and industry bias intersect. It’s also where women are quietly assessing: Do I belong here? Do I want to build my career here?

That’s why we focus our work at Trellis on this critical stage. Our early career programs are designed to build the confidence, communication, and self-advocacy skills that underpin leadership readiness. We provide women with the tools to navigate male-dominated environments and build careers they actually want to stay in.

We’re not a leadership program. We’re the work that happens before it. We’re the support that ensures leadership even becomes a possibility.

Because when early career women thrive, they don’t just stay.
They rise.
They lead.
And they bring others with them.

And that’s not just good for gender equality.That’s good for business.