Making space for success: How to create workplaces where women thrive

Picture your workplace on a typical Tuesday morning. Some of your employees have been up since 5 a.m., getting kids ready for school before logging on. Your frontline staff is juggling customer demands while trying to make it to parent-teacher conferences. And your workplace systems? They’re built as if none of this reality exists.

The latest research from Appspace puts numbers to what you’re probably seeing here: 86% of working parents say they need more support. Only 30% of frontline workers feel their organization has their back. These aren’t just data points but people on your team who are making it work despite the system, not because of it.

To dig deeper into what’s holding companies back and, more importantly, what they can do to fix it, we sat down to chat with Holly Grogan, Chief Experience Officer at Appspace. With years of experience helping organizations shape workplace culture, Holly shared key areas where companies need to step up and how leaders of workplace experiences can take meaningful action today.

What flexibility actually means

“To make work truly fit around real life for women and caretakers, companies must start by embracing flexibility not as a perk, but as a core principle of inclusion and performance,” Holly explains. She’s right. We’ve all seen what happens when “flexible work” just means “you can sometimes work from home.” People end up apologizing for school pickups, hiding caregiving responsibilities, and burning out trying to fit their lives into a workplace that claims to be flexible but really isn’t.

When 67% of working parents say they can’t perform their best without remote options, they’re not asking for permission to slack off. They’re asking for systems that acknowledge their whole lives: The morning routines, the midday care responsibilities, the late-night catch-up work that gets done after the kids are asleep.

When good ideas get lost in the room

We’ve all been in those meetings. Someone makes a point that gets ignored. Ten minutes later, someone else makes the same point and suddenly it’s brilliant. For women in the workplace, this isn’t just an occasional annoyance but a pattern that shapes careers.

Holly sees these dynamics play out constantly, but she also sees how small actions can shift the entire conversation. When a leader says “I want to hear what [woman’s name] thinks,” it does more than pause the discussion, it signals that her expertise matters. When teams make space for different communication styles, they don’t just hear more voices, they get better ideas.”

Why formal mentorship programs usually fail

Appspace doesn’t have a formal mentorship program. According to Holly, that’s by design. After implementing these programs at multiple companies, she’s seen the same pattern play out. “You end up with somebody that will give you some advice,” she explains, “but not how I perceive a true mentor, somebody that’s really looking out for you and has a vested interest.”

Think about it like blind dating. HR looks at two lists: what someone wants in their career, and what potential mentors can offer. Then they play matchmaker. But real mentorship isn’t about matching bullet points on a spreadsheet. “The real magic in mentorship is chemistry,” Holly says. It’s that person you have a great conversation with who becomes a natural mentor. Or when your leader notices your potential and says “You know what? I know someone who could really help you grow in that direction.”

The most valuable mentor relationships often start with a leader who’s paying attention. Who notices when someone on their team has potential and makes those key introductions. Who understands both where someone wants to go and who in their network could help them get there. It’s personal, it’s intentional, and it can’t be forced into a formal program.

The connection problem nobody’s solving

The research is sobering: 82% of employees say they’re struggling to connect with colleagues. But behind that number is a deeper truth: your workplace culture lives or dies in the spaces between meetings. The casual conversations that spark new ideas. The quick questions that prevent major mistakes. The informal mentoring that happens when someone notices a colleague struggling with a challenge they’ve faced before.

Remote and hybrid work didn’t create the connection problem. It just exposed the cracks in how we’ve always done things. When your team is spread across different locations and time zones, you can’t rely on break room chat and hallway run-ins to build relationships.

“A supportive workplace, to me, is an environment where colleagues uplift each other, knowing that when one person succeeds, the whole team benefits,” Holly explains. But that environment doesn’t appear by magic. It needs intentional design, the right digital tools, and leaders who understand that connection isn’t a nice-to-have. This is how the work actually gets done.

Blazing the path forward

When we talk about supporting women in the workplace, we often focus on big initiatives and radical policy changes. But as Holly’s insights show, the real transformation happens in the small moments: When a leader makes space for a voice that’s being overlooked. When mentorship grows naturally from genuine connection. When workplace tools actually match how people need to work.

These aren’t just nice-to-haves. They’re the difference between a workplace that says it supports women and one that actually does. Between a culture that looks good on paper and one that works in real life.

The technology exists. The understanding is there. The missing piece? Workplace leaders willing to look beyond quick fixes and standard programs to build systems that reflect how work really happens in 2025.

For more insights on the state of the workplace, check out our latest workplace experience trends & insights report.