Despite growing awareness of diversity deficits in the media and entertainment industries, women remain significantly underrepresented in technical and creative leadership roles within the visual effects industry. This paper investigates the systemic barriers and gendered career pathways that shape women’s experiences in roles such as compositors and supervisors drawing exclusively on secondary literature embedded within qualitative and quantitative studies. The findings reveal persistent patterns of occupational segregation, pipeline leakage, and symbolic marginalization. Women face challenges in attaining leadership legitimacy due to role incongruity, lack of sponsorship, and crediting practices that systematically obscure their contributions. Additionally, women of color remain virtually invisible in supervisory positions, underscoring the compounded exclusions at the intersection of race and gender. Through thematic synthesis and representation analysis, the study highlights four major barriers: role incongruity, work-life strain, professional leakage, and recognition deficits. It also outlines coping strategies employed by women to navigate institutional constraints, including behavioral adaptation, informal leadership, and horizontal mobility. Two analytic tables summarize disparities in gender representation and the structural barriers women confront across VFX roles. The paper concludes with targeted policy recommendations emphasizing mentorship infrastructure, inclusive credit systems, and reform of recognition practices. These interventions are critical to fostering equitable career advancement and institutional visibility for women in this male-dominated industry.