What industry has the most minority representation in leadership?

September 3, 2020 11:50 AM

I've been reading today about how underrepresented different groups are in the executive arena in general. So which industry is doing it the least wrong? As in which specific sector has the most non-caucasian individuals in leadership roles (C-suite, executive directors, etc)? Cosmetics? Mining? Medicine? Who's doing representation the least wrong?
posted by rileyray3000 to Work & Money (9 answers total)

I don't know numbers but anecdotally nursing leadership is better than many other industries, although white people and men are still over-represented considering the demographics of the profession.
posted by latkes at 12:31 PM on September 3, 2020

I can't speak to other sectors, but there is a handy resource for some of these statistics for the non-profit sector in the US: Leading with Intent. The most recent report (2017) indicates that people identifying as anything other than "Caucasian"* make up 10% of CEOs, 10% of Board Chairs, and 16% of Board Members (see page 10 of the downloadable full report).

*The other categories being African American/Black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Two or more races, Other, Hispanic or Latino of any race, and Not Hispanic or Latino
posted by solotoro at 12:34 PM on September 3, 2020

This might be obvious, but brands and companies that focus on BIPOC products are usually extremely diverse. So, basically, any brands in the "textured haircare" aisle at Target. Does "textured haircare" count as an industry?
posted by bbqturtle at 1:04 PM on September 3, 2020

When I worked at a popular international clothing retailer (hint: two letters with an & in the middle), I was surprised to learn that regional and store management was overwhelmingly women (~80% if memory serves).
posted by RisforKickin at 1:32 PM on September 3, 2020

I was just looking at this question, and education and social work/human services came up pretty high.
posted by Miko at 4:36 PM on September 3, 2020

I suppose you could also count the military.
posted by mareli at 4:44 PM on September 3, 2020

> This might be obvious, but brands and companies that focus on BIPOC products are usually extremely diverse. So, basically, any brands in the "textured haircare" aisle at Target. Does "textured haircare" count as an industry?

A significant number of the major brands of haircare products for black hair are not actually black-owned companies.
posted by desuetude at 11:42 PM on September 3, 2020

Desuetude, I’ve done research in this area, while the biggest brands have been getting acquired lately (cantu, Shea) most other brands are independent.
posted by bbqturtle at 6:02 AM on September 4, 2020

I don’t have an answer to the question but in terms of where to look, some of these terms might help you find data from academic literature (although these terms are most frequently used to talk about the effects of gender):

Horizontal segregation refers to [advantaged group]-dominated and [disadvantaged group]-dominated sectors (e.g. engineering vs care work in the case of men and women).

Vertical discrimination refers to the tendency of [advantaged group] to be promoted over [disadvantaged group].

The glass escalator (by contrast to the glass ceiling) is the tendency for men in female-dominated professions to be rapidly promoted, i.e. the prevalence of vertical segregation in favour of men within horizontally segregated, female-dominated industries.

As I understand it, these terms apply to other advantaged / disadvantaged groups, and here for example is some research on whether minority men are advantaged by the glass escalator in female-dominated sectors.

So you would probably be looking for an industry sector with significant minority participation (perhaps due to the effects of horizontal segregation) but low vertical segregation, i.e. without the equivalent of a glass escalator for white people.
posted by chappell, ambrose at 5:58 AM on September 8, 2020