“Power is like real estate. Location, location, location. The closer you are, the better.” – House of Cards
That line from the US political drama captures the ruthless, all-consuming side of ambition: every waking hour spent plotting the next move. But is that really what ambition means for women in UK business? For most of us, ambition is not about elbowing others aside; it is the earnest desire to achieve something meaningful and the willingness to work for it.
Look the word up and you will find definitions close to “an earnest desire for achievement, distinction or success, and the willingness to strive for its attainment.” That sounds admirable. Yet ambition still carries a negative charge, especially for women. While it is celebrated in men, it is too often read as pushiness or aggression in women. Research into gender stereotypes at work confirms that the same confident behaviour wins men praise and women penalties.
From FTSE boardrooms to fast-growing start-ups, UK women are proving that ambition and integrity can go hand in hand. Still, the question remains: why do so many women feel they must downplay their drive?
Whenever women and ambition are discussed, I think of the late Judy Elder’s famous speech, Mothers, Fathers, Men, Ambition. She delivered it in 2002 as General Manager of Microsoft Canada, and much of what she said still rings true on this side of the Atlantic.
Elder admitted she had always been ambitious: never satisfied, always wanting the next role, wanting to be in charge and convinced she could do it well. She had switched careers and companies out of boredom and thwarted ambition—two sides of the same coin. “After all,” she asked, “isn’t ambition just a more focused word for motivation?”
For her, ambition was not the destination but the journey. Reflecting on women and their ambition, she concluded:
In our society’s eyes there are two sorts of ambition—the desire for personal best, in sport, the arts, science. Women do extremely well in areas of individual achievement.
But when it comes to organisational ambition, the passionate desire to lead complex organisations in business, government and the public sector, we do far worse.
You only have to look at UK leadership data to see what she meant. Women now hold around 42% of seats on FTSE 350 boards, a record high and clear progress since the Davies and Hampton-Alexander reviews. Yet they remain under-represented at the very top: fewer than one in eight FTSE 100 chief executives are women, and women hold only around one in seven FTSE 350 chair roles. On executive committees—the pipeline to the top—women occupy roughly a third of positions. The story is similar among female entrepreneurs: the Alison Rose Review found that only 20% of UK businesses are majority women-led, though the number is rising.
The persistence of the gender pay gap tells part of the same story. ONS figures for 2024 put the median gender pay gap for full-time employees at 7.7%, and the gap widens after women have children. When ambition is punished rather than rewarded, it is no surprise that some women downplay their goals or opt out of traditional career ladders altogether.
Elder challenged why women are celebrated for personal bests but, as she put it, “blocked from organisational top-dog positions.” She believed that while women may be personally trusted, they are less trusted to lead. “We don’t have alpha people,” she said, “we have alpha males, and when it comes down to picking someone who is going to win for us, we are inclined to pick the big, strong, competitive, undistracted—yes, ruthless—guy.”
One of the best pieces of advice Elder received was from a mentor: “People never get anywhere unless someone wants them to.” In other words, organisational ambition needs other people to be ambitious for you. That is why mentoring for women, sponsorship and strong networks matter. A senior ally who publicly backs your next promotion can do more for your career than years of quietly outperforming.
One of the oblique criticisms of women’s ambition, Elder noted, “is that it is selfish, self-aggrandising, putting yourself forward in an unseemly way.” Yet recognition is vital to organisational success, especially for women, who often find the spotlight uncomfortable, particularly when success comes from a team rather than a solo effort. But Elder urged us not to shy away from it. Owning your achievements is not boasting; it is giving decision-makers the information they need to promote you.
She ended her speech with three goals for women. They are as relevant to UK business today as they were in Toronto two decades ago:
- Acknowledge and be proud of your ambition. Celebrate the fact that you want to go far, and while you are at it, celebrate it in other women. Ambition grows when it is named and shared.
- Consciously reject the baggage and barriers. Biases, blame, equality gaps, leadership stereotypes, self-doubt and guilt all block ambition. Notice them, challenge them, and do not let them define your ceiling.
- Be prepared to kick-start your ambition. Whether you are returning after maternity leave, weighing up self-employment, or deciding it is time to ask for your boss’s job, your inner ambition will need a deliberate restart from time to time.
Three weeks after giving that landmark presentation, Judy Elder died. She was 47. In her memory, the Rotman School of Business in Toronto launched the Judy Project, a leadership programme for executive women. Her words live on, and they echo in UK initiatives such as the FTSE Women Leaders Review, the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, and networks that support women into senior roles. Building those leadership skills—and the confidence to use them—remains one of the most powerful investments any woman can make in her career.
Ambition is not a character flaw. It is the engine of innovation, growth and change. Whether you are running a start-up, climbing the corporate ladder or leading a public-sector team, your ambition deserves room to grow. UK women have every right to claim it—without apology.
