Women of Impact - A Reflection from the Author

In 2025, we launched our Women of Impact programme, setting out to celebrate and spotlight the achievements of LGBTQ+ women, whilst gathering insights into their workplace experiences and the challenges they encounter at work. Our Women of Impact role models list and Editorial Series were key elements of this initiative, created in response to a clear call from our community: that the visibility and representation of LGBTQ+ women must improve. Indeed, despite advancements in legal protections and organisational commitments to diversity and inclusion, many LGBTQ+ women still report feeling unseen, undervalued and unable to bring their authentic selves to work.

In order to understand why these challenges persist and what we can do to overcome them, we undertook a qualitative research project, forming the final component of the Women of Impact programme. Conducting a series of one-to-one interviews, and hosting a roundtable in partnership with Fidelity International, we put the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ women at the centre of this project, ensuring that their voices and stories shaped the ensuing report and the conclusions it draws. Thanks to the honesty and vulnerability of our participants, this research provides vital insights into the challenges and barriers that persist for many LGBTQ+ women, how they affect the daily workplace experience and larger career trajectories of individuals, and what organisations can do to foster meaningful change. I’d like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to each of those who took part, volunteered their time, and commendably shared their personal experiences; without their openness and generosity this important new research would not exist.

Over the course of the interviews and roundtable, as our conversations traversed a range of themes – from coming out at work, to experiences of discrimination, to the impact of (in)visibility, and the hurdles many face as they climb the career ladder – it became strikingly clear that whilst some things had certainly changed and improved over time, the impact of misogyny and sexism was unrelenting. The frank reflections of participants underscored how sexism and misogyny manifest in the workplace, and how they intersect with other prejudicial attitudes and larger societal forces to present LGBTQ+ women with specific and compounded discrimination and barriers to inclusion. Participant testimonies revealed the untold impact this can have on individual experience of the workplace, effecting the willingness of some to be open about their LGBTQ+ identities, causing others to modify their behaviour and personality, and ultimately creating environments where LGBTQ+ women don’t feel like they can be their authentic selves.

What struck me as being of particular significance throughout this process, was the necessity of acknowledging and addressing the struggles that LGBTQ+ women face at work. Whilst we cannot eradicate the wider societal forces that exist at large, we can take action to lessen their impact at the individual scale and implement measures to foster more inclusive workplaces where inclusion and equality are embedded. The first step in this journey is highlighting how misogyny, sexism, LGBTQ+-phobias, and other prejudices manifest in the workplace. Indeed, the importance of listening to the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ women, and calling attention to the microaggressions, discrimination and prejudicial treatment they face at work, arose as one of the key takeaways from our Women of Impact roundtable. As participants shared the struggles that they had faced, in some instances recounting shocking examples of harassment and discrimination, it became clear to those of us in the room that ensuring that these experiences are documented and brought to light is crucial. As one roundtable participant explained:

Some of the experiences that I’ve heard today I haven’t heard before, which has actually shocked me as well…[highlighting these experiences] is absolutely critical to understand what’s actually happening, otherwise we can’t obviously tackle them.  

As the above quote highlights, underscoring these experiences is an essential step in promoting understanding, awareness and education, so that we can begin to address and challenge the problems at large. Raising the Bar: The Experiences of LGBTQ+ Women in the Workplace serves as a starting point in this journey, providing an honest and transparent picture of some of the barriers to inclusion many LGBTQ+ women face, and offering pragmatic ways to collectively break these barriers down. By leading with lived experience, this research has elevated the voices of those who have often gone unheard in order to promote understanding and drive meaningful change to help build truly inclusive workplaces where LGBTQ+ women feel seen, valued and supported. You can download the full report here.

Authored by Dr Beth Charlton