![](https://girlgeek.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/everyone-missed-a-key-reason-why-there-are-so-few-women-leaders.jpeg)
Researchers are only starting to consider how sexual harassment keeps women down. “I can’t help but wonder if this has been the elephant in the room all along,” said labor economist Laura Sherbin, who studies the lack of women at the top as co-president at the Center for Talent Innovation, a think tank and consultancy that works on diversity issues. It’s not hard to find examples of how harassment disrupts women’s careers. Plenty of women have left who could have one day led.