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Minority Women Making Inroads in Private Sector, Federal Study Indicates By Alex Navarro Clifton HispanicBusiness.com
September 03, 2003
Women of color have seen their ranks in the private-sector workplace swell over the last decade, a recently released federal study shows.
Employment of Hispanic women increased at the highest rate -- 104 percent -- during the period of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission study; that of black women grew at the lowest rate, 43 percent.
The EEOC conducted its first women-of-color survey this summer, using information gathered from the agency's annual employment reports.
The survey found that between 1990 and 2001 women of color as a group increased from 11 percent of the private-sector workforce to 14.5 percent.
"There were not a lot of surprises for us because what we saw is what we expected," said EEOC spokeswoman Jennifer Kaplan. "We knew there was a glass ceiling, and we knew anecdotally that it's hung lower for women of color."
For each group, the survey shows the industries where women are most likely to work and rise to positions of power.
Nursing and residential care facilities employed the largest percentage of black women and the largest percentage of women overall. Black women were 7.6 percent of the private-sector workforce and were most likely to become managers in legal services.
Hispanic women went from making up 2.9 percent of the private sector in 1990 to 4.7 percent in 2001. Crop production employed the largest percentage of Hispanic women and the largest percentage of total Hispanics.
Nationwide, Hispanic women are most likely to be employed as managers in water transportation, sightseeing and accommodations, the study found. Hispanic women professionals have the highest probability of becoming managers in legal services, doctors' offices and architectural and engineering firms.
Those results were in line with expectations for Laura Corry, chairwoman of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Palm Beach County.
"Our culture has evolved so that women are more prone now to get a higher education and become strong businesswomen," Corry said. "We want to be seated at the table."
Asian and Native American women's numbers are still a small fraction of the private-sector workforce. Asian women made up 2.1 percent of that workforce in 2001.
The top industry for Asian women is computer and electric product manufacturing, which also is the highest-rated industry for Asians overall.
The top three industries for Asian women managers are the motion picture business; the sound recording industry; and nursing and residential care facilities. Professional Asian women are most likely to become managers in full-service restaurants, the survey found.
Native American women had the slightest increase, from 0.2 percent to 0.3 of the private work force. Native American women are most often employed in gasoline stations and apparel manufacturing. Professional Native American women are most likely to become managers in legal services, the survey said.
The EEOC's results came from so-called EEO-1 reports, which are required for public and private companies of 100 or more employees. In 2001, more than 39,000 businesses employing 52 million Americans filed an EEO-1 report.
An official at Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit that supports women in business, said the EEOC's findings complement Catalyst's three-year study of professional women of color.
"Though there was progress for women of color, we found they're still excluded from having mentors and informal networks," said Katherine Giscombe, senior director of research. "This translated to a double disadvantage in terms of climbing the corporate ladder."
Source: (c) 2003, The Palm Beach Post, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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