The Workplace Isn’t Equal for Black Women. Here’s How Companies Can Change That. by Raena Saddler and Rachel Thomas Corporate America isn’t doing nearly enough to support black women. That’s a major injustice and a missed opportunity. And there are relatively simple things companies can do right now to begin to fix it. RAENA SADDLER is the Vice President of People & Managing Director of LeanIn.Org
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RACHEL THOMAS is Co-founder and CEO of LeanIn.Org
FOR FIVE YEARS, Lean In has conducted the Women in the Workplace
survey, the largest study on the state of women in corporate America.1 To our knowledge, it’s also the largest study on the experiences of women of color at work. All statistics in this article are from this report unless otherwise noted. Year after year, the data tell the same story: despite being highly ambitious, black women face far more barriers to advancement and receive notably less support than women as a whole. Black women are more likely to want to lead; 41 percent of black women are interested in becoming top executives, compared with 29 percent of white women. And they don’t want power only for power’s sake: black women with leadership ambitions are particularly interested in paving the way for others and having a positive impact on their company’s culture. They know firsthand how hard the road can be, especially for women of color, and they want to help change that. At a time when companies say they want to recruit, promote, and cultivate more women leaders, it would seem evident that investing in black women – who both want to lead and to help develop the next generation of diverse leaders – is a smart thing to do. 14
