ACCELERATING THE PATH TO CORPORATE LEADERSHIP FOR ALL WOMEN

Abstract

AbstractThe authors detail new research related to the 20th anniversary edition of their landmark book Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity. It is described as “the first book to provide an in‐depth look at how race and gender affect the advancement of women into senior leadership positions in corporate America. The book was based on life history interviews conducted with 120 Black and White women executives who had risen to senior leadership positions in their companies.” Although there have been some positive changes since then, “the barriers we identified more than two decades ago persist, and the advice we provided then remains relevant.” They also note some crucial challenges that affect both African American women and men: “Achieving real, organizational change to eradicate systemic racism in the workplace requires some heavy lifting by leaders.” The authors believe that “ending systemic racism requires a deeper understanding of its meaning and the actions to address it. As we explain in Our Separate Ways, racism refers to the existence of a dominant racial hierarchy that places White people at the top and other racial groups below them in respect to advantage and disadvantage. It is systemic because it exists in all spheres of society.”