Multicultural Women Underrepresented in Retail Leadership

CHICAGO — Even though 36 percent of females in the United States are multicultural, these women are underrepresented in the leadership of the retail and consumer goods industry, according to the new Women's Leadership Report released by the Network of Executive Women (NEW).

Based on an exclusive survey of nearly 1,950 NEW supporters, interviews with industry leaders, insights from multicultural women and research from diversity experts, the report was written by Ancella Livers of the Center for Creative Leadership and Trudy Bourgeois of The Center for Workforce Excellence.

Key findings include:

• Companies with more multicultural women leaders are more competitive.
• Multicultural women generally face greater hurdles — inside and outside the workplace — than other women.
• White women and multicultural women perceive the workplace differently.
• Most corporate cultures foster "covering" and multicultural women are less likely to bring their whole selves to work.
• There are steps that individuals and organizations can take to drive change on both the macro and micro level.

The full 24-page report, entitled Tapestry: Leveraging the Rich Diversity of Women in Retail and Consumer Goods, can be downloaded at www.newonline.org/tapestry.

The Network of Executive Women, based in Chicago, is the consumer packaged goods industry's largest women's leadership organization, with more than 8,500 members representing 700 companies.