Black women in corporate America: the inside story; executive women discuss real-life workplace issues that face black women today - Black Enterprise Executive Women's Roundtable - Cover Story - Panel Discussion

Black Enterprise, August, 1994 by Sheryl Hilliard Tucker

Executive women discuss real-life workplace issues that face black women today.

Prognosis: The going is tough, but worth it if your priorities are clear

After much discussion and debate, recent statistics released by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have confirmed that black professional women now outpace black professional men almost 2 to 1 in corporate America. In fact, overall there are now more black women than black men (2.77 million women, 2.44 million men) in the 38,000 companies that report to the EEOC.

According to a study by The Wall Street Journal on these findings, these statistics represent a 125% increase of black professional women between 1982 and 1992. The study further revealed that black women have outpaced black men in most white-collar categories (excluding clerical). However, at the most senior levels of these ranks-under the EEOC designation of officers and managers-black men outnumber black women 146,000 to 113,000. However, black women increased their representation in management by 64% versus 22% by black men between 1982 and 1992.

But despite these gains, the statistics don't tell the other side of the story. Salaries of black women in the workforce still trail black men by 14 percentage points. And black women still make up only 5.9% of all professionals and 5% of officers and managers in EEOC companies. Equally important, most African-American women in the professional and managerial ranks tend to be clustered in highly vulnerable staff or support positions that are not part of the core business of their companies.

In light of these findings, BLACK ENTERPRISE recently convened its first on-the-record Executive Women's Roundtable at our corporate headquarters in New York. Over lunch, participants representing some of the nation's largest corporations focused on issues related to racism and sexism in the workplace. Moderated by Sheryl Hilliard-Tucker, Editor-in-Chief of BLACK ENTERPRISE, the participants included:

Angela L. Avant, C.P.A., Financial Manager of External Development, Opto-Electronics Business, Corning Inc.

Ella Edmondson Bell, Professor, Consultant and Author, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Margaret H. Jordan, V.P. of Health Care and Employee Services, Southern California Edison.

Linda Baker Keene, V.P. of Market Development at IDS Financial Services

Brenda Schofield, Corporate Manager of Affirmative Action, Kraft General Foods.

Carolyn Odom Steele, Marketing Communications Consultant.

Anita Underwood, V.P. of Organizational Management, Dun Bradstreet.

Sheryl Hilliard-Tucker: Today we are exploring the experiences of African-American women in corporate America in terms of perception versus reality. The statistics of black women in corporate America say one thing, the experiences reveal quite a different story. What has been your experience as one of the first or only black females in your company?

Linda Baker Keene: Several years ago I attended a meeting of the top 200 managers worldwide of the Grand Metropolitan PLC. There were about 15 women out of 200 attendees. It took my breath away to go into a meeting of the most senior level executives in my corporation and realize that I was the only black person at this level. No one ever stopped to think that this might be uncomfortable or a difficult situation. It's not an issue for them. You just have to learn how to deal with it. But I don't think you ever stop being uncomfortable.

Margaret Jordan: I'm uncomfortable with the idea that after all these years that I still can be a "first." At Southern California Edison, I'm the first female and first black corporate exec. Since I joined them a year and a half ago, they have promoted another female who came up through their ranks and is now my boss. The CEO deliberately wanted me to come on board in part because he wanted to get more color within his executive ranks. He's fairly up-front about that.

Angela Avant: In 1986, I was the first black female manager in the audit practice at Arthur Andersen & Co.-Washington, D.C. I didn't understand why I was the first one for a company that had been in existence since 1913. Actually, one of my brothers asked me how did it feel to be the first. I told him that I felt great because I believed that I was promoted because of my skills and not because they needed to have a black female at that level.

Some clients did not want me as the manager on their accounts. No one ever said that to me, but I knew it. The real problem for me was that the firm allowed them to do that. A lot of business decisions are impacted by the clients. I certainly understand the need for that, but I don't think companies are willing to risk putting African-American women in [high-pro-file] positions. I think corporations need to become more comfortable with us.

Tucker: Anita, can I ask you another question? Since your job is to help management understand how to deal with change, how do you advise corporate management about recruiting, hiring or promoting an African-American woman up the ranks?