Women of Color Are New Focus in Workplace; Working Mother Magazine Names Best Companies for...

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 28, 2003

When women of color want to find a good place to work, they should head for American Express, Fannie Mae, or IBM, according to Working Mother magazine, which today released its first annual Best Companies for Women of Color

In a survey of women of color at major American companies that included the three winners, Working Mother found a majority of women of color executives, professionals, and managers reporting overall satisfaction with their advancement opportunities, compensation, and their companies' commitment to diversity.

However, among the 1115 African-American, Asian-American, Latina-American, and Native-American women responding to the survey, even satisfied and successful women said they often struggle to fit in and feel they must out-perform white women and male peers to keep pace. African-American women felt the least optimistic.

The satisfaction level drops among overall respondents who indicated that their bosses "think of them as women of color," with 51 percent believing that being a woman of color has impeded their advancement, compared to 18 percent among respondents as a whole.

Thirty-one percent of the women surveyed hold managerial or executive positions, although 39% hold graduate degrees. "Despite growing numbers in corporate America, women of color continue to lag in terms of salary and advancement," says Jill Kirschenbaum, editor-in-chief of Working Mother. "They are vastly underrepresented in management positions, in executive suites, and on corporate boards. And, because many corporate diversity programs include minority men and white women, it's easy for the progress of women of color to be overlooked."

To change that, Working Mother launched an initiative to find the best companies for women of color. Editor-in-chief Jill Kirschenbaum says, "We knew when we started this over a year ago that we had a tough road ahead, since not many companies track separate data on women of color. But the interest in today's business world of advancing women of color became clear when over 100 companies registered for the application for our list. Companies that never monitored that information have now started to do so, and in corporate America, what gets measured gets done."

Kirschenbaum explains that "although only three companies made the first list, we're confident that the benchmarks established by the winning companies this year will jumpstart progress for women of color around the country. Our goal here is similar to our original goal with the '100 Best Companies for Working Mothers' list we have published for 18 years," says Kirschenbaum. "We want to push all women - and the companies they work for - to think differently, and in the process, to improve the workplace for all women."

What makes a Best Company for Women of Color? Working Mother found formal compensation policies that reward managers for helping women of color advance; inclusion of women of color in succession plans; employee surveys on diversity issues; conferences, seminars, and symposia for women of color; and supplier diversity initiatives and lobbying efforts that focus on women of color.

Other hallmarks include designated diversity councils, employee networking groups, diversity training for employees and managers, and mentoring and leadership training for women of color. Three quarters of the women surveyed at these companies find their values on diversity shared by the company; and four out of five plan to be with their companies 12 months from now.

"What we've found is that companies that understand the importance of diversity have started to focus on what they must do to recruit women of color and then ensure that talent gets rewarded and stays around," says Kirschenbaum. "But it's important to remember that the high level of satisfaction we found among the women in the survey reflects the commitment of their organizations to diversity," Kirschenbaum adds. "These women work at companies that self-selected as good companies for women of color, and the optimism of the women who work there reflects that. We know from other surveys that corporations still have a lot of work to do."

And most subtle among the issues they need to work on, says Kirschenbaum, is the issue of isolation: how much one expresses or plays down cultural background when at work. "When African-Americans decide not to wear their hair in dreadlocks or braids, or Native-Americans feel they can't celebrate their sacred rituals, or Latinas and Asians feel they shouldn't speak their own languages even in private conversations, then blending in can interfere with identity and their experience in the company culture. And that can affect productivity, as well as their satisfaction with their organizations."

As part of an ongoing initiative, Working Mother Media will host a first annual Best Companies for Women of Color conference in New York City on July 23-24, reports Carol Evans, CEO of Working Mother Media, Working Mother's parent company. "We are bringing together women of all colors from around the country to discuss race, identity, and how white privilege affects the workplace. As part of our mission to serve women boldly, we will talk openly about race and gender in the workplace. For many women, this will be the first opportunity to speak of these issues in a public forum. Building bridges between women of different races is the joyful part of this powerful initiative."

2003 WORKING MOTHER BEST COMPANIES FOR WOMEN OF COLOR:

*American Express - with an African-American CEO (Kenneth Chennault) at the helm--has formal compensation policies that reward managers for helping women of color advance, one of the most effective means of ensuring success. Amex holds managers accountable by rating individuals on the skills and attitudes - including diversity--that the company deems essential leadership elements. It also facilitates the inclusion of women of color in succession plans. The company has surveyed employees on diversity issues every year since 1993, and it trains managers on supervising diversity. Eighty-one percent of the women surveyed in the company plan to remain working for the company a year from now, and 79 percent find their values about diversity and those of the company to be similar.

*Fannie Mae - which also has an African-American CEO (Franklin Raines)--began an employee opinion survey on diversity last year. A solid slate of development programs for women of color provides the key element in the corporate culture, including Assistance for Collegiate Education that allows employees at all levels to pursue a bachelor's or master's degree on Fannie Mae's dime. Nearly half of the women participating in mentoring and leadership programs are women of color. One highly successful career development initiative is the company's job rotation program, in which employees road test jobs in other divisions to broaden corporate experience. The company also holds an annual women of color conference/forum to encourage advancement. A whopping 83 percent plan to be working there next year, and 75 percent believe their values about diversity similar to the company's.

*IBM has a four-pronged strategy of recruiting, developing, mentoring, and networking - designed specifically for women of color - to combat traditionally low numbers in technology. The company has a Multicultural Women's Symposia and active Leadership Institute to help advance women of color into executive positions. IBM also brings senior executives together with women who have less than five years at the company through programs like La Red - a Hispanic-women's teleconference group. The company recruits globally and their efforts are paying off: Since 1995, the number of women of color executives has grown from 17 to 74. Seventy-four percent of women surveyed see the company's values about diversity aligned with their own, and 83 percent plan to still be with IBM next year.

Methodology: Working Mother conducted the employee survey as part of the selecting the Best Companies for Women of Color. Eligible companies were for-profit, private, or public American firms with a minimum of 3000 employees and minimum annual revenues of $500 million. Ten companies applied for that list, and seven of those selected a random population of professional, managerial and executive women of color (African-American, Asian-American, including women from the Asian subcontinent and Pacific Islanders, Latina-American, and Native-American), who filled out the survey anonymously online. The Best Companies selection process also looked at employee population, advancement programs, availability and tracking of diversity programs, and the accountability of managers for overseeing them.

Demographics: Fifty-one percent of survey respondents were African-American, 29 percent Asian-American, 18 percent Latina-American, and the rest Native-American. Thirty-one percent are managers or executives; 35 percent have worked at their company 11 or more years; and 84 percent hold a college degree or higher. Fifty-two percent are married, 30 percent have never married, and 45 percent have children.

Founded in 1979, Working Mother magazine reaches more than 3 million readers, and is the only national publication written expressly for working mothers. Over the past 18 years, its signature list -the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers"- has emerged as a catalyst for change in corporate America. The magazine is part of Working Mother Media (WMM), which also owns the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), Executive Female and the annual 100 Best Companies Congress. In 2002, WMM launched the "Best Companies for Women of Color" initiative, culminating in a national event, slated for July 2003 in New York City.