A Few Statistics on Minority Women in Leadership & Tech

Statistics Of Minority Women in Leadership

The spending power of women of color is immense. Their presence in the workforce is growing.₁ Yet, how well have businesses been doing in ensuring minority women have a seat at the table in the board room? In leveraging their abilities to communicate, inspire, teach and deliver results, to help lead companies to new levels of innovation?

• Minority women make up 13.4% of the US workforce ₂, and 1.6% corporate officer posts at 429 fortune 500 companies ₃

African-American women earn just 63 percent of white men, and Latina women fare worst of all – they earn only 53 cents for every dollar paid to white men. ₄

Women executives of all colors are leaving the top ranks of American business in droves. They held 32 percent of top jobs in 1990, but only 19 percent of such positions in 2000 ⁵

Women comprised 51.4% of management, professional and related positions.12 For racially and ethnically diverse women specifically: African-American women comprised 5.3% (2,761,000) of all people employed in management, professional, and related occupations

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 Minority Women in Technology

As we evolve from the manufacturing age to the digital age where technology rules, the ability of cultures to evolve is paramount, as they have done in the transition from agriculture to manufacturing. How well are minority women transitioning to the digital age?

•  According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, approximately 29% of the population consists of ethnic people of color, including people of African, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian origins. However, only about 11% of those working in IT belong to these groups. ₉
• 6.1% of technical men and 8.2% of technical women in Silicon Valley high-tech companies are underrepresented minorities. The proportion of African-American technical women goes from 4.6% at the entry level to 1.6% at the high level. ₈

Blacks and Hispanics constitute only 1.5% and 4.7% respectively of Silicon Valley’s tech population—well below national tech-population averages of 7.1% and 5.3%. ₇
　

Does it matter that we are not represented proportionally in “key” positions in society?

SOURCES1. http://www.newnewsletter.org/bestpractices/newreport2_woc0407.pdf 2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003. 3. Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners in the Fortune 500, 2002. 4. Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the Urban Institute (Women’s eNews), 2004. 5. Analysis of U.S. Census Data by Peopleclick Inc. 6. Catalyst, Statistical Overview of Women in the workplace 2012 7. http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/03/women-of-color-in-tech-how-can-we-encourage-them/ 8. Obstacles 9. RECRUITING WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COURSES, Jo Sanders