About 42 percent of women of color in corporate America feel that they have to conform to the white male model, according to a new survey by the Center for Work-Life Policy, a New York-based think tank.
Here are some of the other findings:
- Nearly a third of minority female executives worry that their speaking style labels them as lacking leadership potential.
- 23 percent of minority female executives fear that colleagues perceive their animated hand gestures as inappropriate.
- 19 percent of minority female professionals feel that their dress is seen as too ethnic or flamboyant.
- 25 percent of minority businesswomen worry about the perception that they are “affirmative action” hires.
The study also found that, among Fortune 500 companies, 98 percent of the CEOs were white men. (This of course does not take into account the senior leadership, which may or may not be a little more diverse.)
It's good business to include women of color in hiring, of course. But retention is the major issue. When you have a talent pool that feels it has to fall in lock-step to the rest of the company in order to succeed, that's a major cultural problem. That means women of color have to deny their natures and possibly their talents. In competitive businesses that emphasize innovative thinking, this could be a major liability if women of color don't feel they can speak up.
