Nearly every large U.S. company has publicly stated its commitment to diversity. Hundreds have signed pledges to achieve gender parity, close the gender pay gap, and make a larger effort to hire black and Latino workers.
And still, executive ranks and upper management remain persistently, stubbornly white and male—even more so than they were a few years ago. What gives?
“Lots of companies are making genuine, serious efforts to increase diversity,” says Kabrina Chang, an associate professor at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. “But I wonder how many of them understand it’s an ongoing thing. It’s not just, ‘we hired two women,’ or ‘we have a black president, so we’re done.’ ”
Companies may succeed in hiring women and people of color, but once those employees get to work, they don’t see a path to advancement. So they look elsewhere for those opportunities, and the company that hired them in the first place becomes more homogeneous.
Learn more about the issue of women and people of color in upper level positions at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-21/america-s-c-suites-keep-getting-whiter-and-more-male-too