Survey: Effects of a Dearth of Black Women in U.S. Companies

Survey Finds Low Numbers of Black Professional Women in Leadership Roles in U.S. Companies Affects Engagement and Retention

(BLACK PR WIRE) (August 20, 2007) CHICAGO - Because the lives of professional black women in America have been understudied and their contributions as leaders often undervalued, The League of Black Women (LBW) conducted its "LBW Having Our Say: Fostering the Leadership Potential of Black Women in America Survey" to help identify and eliminate the challenges black women face as they strive to fulfill their leadership potential and achieve socio-economic parity for themselves, their families and their communities.

The report includes an assessment of the key barriers to black women realizing their leadership potential; recommendations for how corporations can remove those barriers and support retention; and personal accounts of professional black women striving to rise to leadership positions despite the odds. The data found only 20 percent of black women are "very satisfied" with their overall lives, and respondents reported greater and more pervasive degrees of frustration with advancing in their careers.

"The League of Black Women is committed to supporting and developing leadership values and joyful living for the 21st century black woman," said Sandra Finley, president/CEO. "With this report we provide essential support and timely advice to corporations on specific methods and recommendations to recruit, retain and empower black women as leaders. By implementing our suggested strategies, we believe companies can improve their efforts toward achieving greater workforce diversity."

The nationwide survey, conducted between 2005 and 2007 in partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton, was designed to gather preliminary data on black women's views about their leadership experiences and satisfaction with their lives. The report highlights three key findings identified as critical factors that influence the level of satisfaction black women obtain in their professional and personal lives. Among the factors are Engagement, defined as institutions and people that have the greatest impact on black women's lives; Cohesion, the quality of black women's relationships with each other; and Bicultural Leadership, used to describe circumstances in which black women lead or exude authority over non-blacks in the workplace. Some specific factors of Engagement, Cohesion and Bicultural Leadership that affect and hinder the overall professional development, advancement and retention of black women in the workplace include:

Engagement
.Under-representation of black women within an organization diminishes essential networking power
.Pressure to hide authentic personal style and professional perspective results in exhaustion (affects productivity)
Cohesion
.Limited professional options that impede black women from having close relationships with each other in corporate environments
.Black women are more committed to their organizations when they are able to form close bonds with other black women
Bicultural Leadership
.Proven leadership ability doesn't reliably translate into promotion opportunities
.Underutilization of education and skill set relegates black women to lower-level jobs

Although black women report they hope to reach their goal of rising to leadership positions, they believe hard work and positive thinking are not enough to obtain the opportunities they seek. To ensure black women have the tools needed to advance, the report suggests corporations need to design distinctive and targeted strategies to develop and advance black women with high potential. Given the limited number of black women as contemporary role models, companies must understand the real time experiences of black women who aspire to obtain corporate leadership jobs and work to provide effective assistance. To combat and address these issues, The League of Black Women recommends corporate leaders promote the concepts of Engagement, Cohesion and Bicultural Leadership in the following ways to support development and retention:

Engagement
.Foster a culture of inclusion that addresses the needs of black women as defined by black women
.Implement policies and practices that respect the need for communal support within and beyond the workplace
Cohesion
.Create coaching resources, mentoring programs, networking opportunities and affinity groups for women of color
.Appreciate cultural and style differences without censure
Bicultural Leadership
.Provide early leadership coaching to help black women successfully confront negative stereotypes
.Recognize and develop black women's distinctive leadership skills
.Identify and end business practices that steer black women with high potential into dead-end jobs

According to the study, black women still see negative perceptions about race as a barrier keeping them from reaching their career goals. As professionals, they believe that others' negative views of them in the workplace hinder their ability to excel in leadership roles. Nearly 80 percent surveyed cited race bias as a hurdle affecting their effectiveness as leaders, to some extent. Respondents said race bias affects interactions with individuals who potentially could influence and advance their career track. Additionally, the report suggests, black women find themselves stagnant in mid and lower level positions that are threatened by corporate downsizing, mergers and acquisitions that cause retention rates of black women to drop.

But despite the overlapping obstacles black women face on their climb up the corporate ladder, the League of Black Women believes if corporations empower black women, their strengths and leadership abilities can be leveraged to help increase company performance and expand business growth.

For more information on The League of Black Women and the "Fostering the Leadership Potential of Black Women in America Survey," please visit www.leagueofblackwomen.org.

Column: Now What? Embracing the "Real World" after College

After a summer of housecleaning, the staff is pleased to spotlight one of several exciting new additions to THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online and our company's extended IMDiversity.com network.

A new ongoing column housed at THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online, Now What? Embracing the "Real World" after College, provides sound guidance on thriving in "the real world" for those making the transition from college to the workplace. The column is created by Chaz Kyser, editor, public speaker, journalism instructor at Langston University, and author of the book, Embracing the Real World: The Black Woman’s Guide to Life After College.

Although many of the articles are related to Ms. Kyser's interest in the college-to-work experiences of young African-American women in particular, the editors find that the insights and practical advice contained in the column are valuable and relevant to readers of all genders and backgrounds -- even those who may have been out of university and working for a while now. Some of Ms. Kyser's work will also be seen on IMDiversity.com in the coming year, as well as here on the blogs.

As always, we invite interested readers to leave a comment or question for Ms. Kyser, and we are particularly interested in having readers share thoughts about your own college-to-career transitions as we approach back to school season.

Calling all "Geek Girls"

The latest in what's become an increasingly fretful series of articles about the lack of women entering the nation's (quickly depleting) pool of engineers suggests is examining models of university recruitment programs targeting women students.

A standout, it seems, has been the effort by MIT, where "targeted programs have yielded 36 percent female enrollment in undergraduate engineering," according to the article by the AP's Dorie Turner.

This still seems the exception rather than the rule, however. The articles focuses on other unversities' initiatives that have not reaped the same benefits. Women are still not entering the field in the needed numbers, in large part because of social and cultural obstacles -- such as stereotypes of the nerdy engineer, or the perception that engineering isn't a field "that allows you to help people" -- rather than industry or workplace obstacles.

Clearly, the path to success in the field is a tough one for women, and perhaps moreso for minority women in particular, as recounted in the profile, "How I Got Where I Am: An Engineering Manager," by College Journal's Adelle Waldman on the Village.

However, as a range of engineering-related industries are growing ever more hysterical over a looming labor crisis, a combination of university and industry intiatives designed to walk women engineers through the many stages of their career development seems to be reaping some results. As the Waldman profile shows, there were many times that Tonya Love, a young Black woman who worked her way into a gratifying position as a project leader at Xerox, doubted that the field was or could be a good one for her. Support in grad school, good advice, and a series of strong internships were crucial stepping stones that kept her going.

In another piece, young Sophie Theis, writing for YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia, sees a subtle cultural change going on, however, that might be good news for engineering schools. In Who Asked Us -- The New (Female) Nerd and the 'Gender Gap,' Theis argues that "the new gender gap is all about attitude":

The new nerd is a hard-working girl, while boys try hard to not try too
hard. That's why so many girls are achieving more than boys in high school and
college.

The development of a "geek-chic for girls" could bode well for companies looking to keep up their supply of skilled engineers, such as our many, many clients of who are specifically looking to fire engineers of all types and levels at IMDiversity.com. The editors are interested in keeping up with stories on this theme in the future, and would also be interested in hearing from some proud "geeks" out there to hear your views on what led to your interests in engineering, computing and similar fields. If you have a story to share with us, please drop us a line.

Added: Path to the Top: Strategies for Women Seeking a Board Seat

Our latest home page feature:

Landing a board seat requires a more subtle strategy than a job search, advises careers author Sarah E. Needleman of the Wall Street Journal. This is because they want to find you, not vice-versa. So, how exactly do you make yourself locatable and noticeable?

Needleman cites statstics "telling a story of slow progress": Women held 14.7% of board seats at Fortune 500 companies in 2005, up from 13.6% in 2003 and 6.9% in 1995, according to a report from Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit group that researches women's career issues.

In her feature, Needleman surveys successful corporate women to learn the tricky approaches to positioning yourself for being selected for a position you can't apply for.

Features for Working Women at the Village

While we're organizing our new blog and our Village site, a feature of interest to working women current accessible from the Women's Village home page:

The New (Female) Nerd and the 'Gender Gap'
This one from New America Media: Teen author argues the new nerd is a hard-working girl, while boys try hard to not try too hard. That's why so many girls are achieving more than boys in high school and college.