Orientation: There has been increased research in the past century on women within the workplace; however, women still face myriad gender-related challenges in their careers.Research purpose: This research investigates how selected factors in and out of organisations affect women’s skills development and career progression.Motivation for the study: There is a pervasive perception that the rate at which women progress across hierarchy of work levels in organizations varies appreciably from the experience of their male counterparts.Research approach/design and method: A positivist research approach was used, employing a questionnaire survey which was administered via an online platform to a sample of 412 women working within the service sector in the Gauteng province of South Africa, using a convenient non-probability sampling method. The relationship between the dependent and independent variables was analysed using the structural equation modelling approach.Main findings: Results reveal that workplace support strategies and personal attributes influence women’s skills development. Workplace support strategies, family responsibilities, personal attributes and skills development also play vital roles in women’s career progression.Practical/managerial implications: To promote gender equity and stimulate a career path for women, organisational support and deliberate women’s skills development initiatives must be engendered.Contribution/value-add: The empirical evidence demonstrates the positive effect that organisational support and personal responsibility have on women’s skills development and their career progression, confirming that skills development is a predictor of women’s career progression.

Although there has been a worldwide cry for gender equity within organizations, gender discriminatory practices continue to be a challenge. Many women still suffer from gender discrimination and remain at the bottom of organizational structures despite their efforts to ascend. This paper seeks to examine the link between gender discriminatory practices and women’s skill development and progression within the workplace. The study espoused a quantitative approach. A questionnaire survey was self-administered online to 412 women through a convenient non-probability sampling method. Descriptive tendencies, test normality, validity, reliability, and regression analysis were performed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS), AMOS 27. The results reveal that women’s skill development is impacted by workplace gender discriminatory practices, and the career progression of women is linked to their skill development. Yet it rejects the claim that workplace gender discriminatory practices impact women’s career progression. While having a gender-friendly work environment is applaudable, developing women’s skills and promoting their advancement at work will require more effort from companies. Organizations need to be deliberate about the skills development and career progression of women and institutionalize initiatives that directly encourage women to engage in developmental activities as well as initiatives geared towards promoting women’s career advancement.