Women of color barred from leadership positions by structural racism

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UK Race Relations Updates

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Women from ethnic minorities are “almost invisible from positions of power in the public and private sectors” in the UK, according to a gender equality charity. The Fawcett Society notes in a new report that non-white women continue to be overrepresented in entry-level and junior positions.

The company has brought together existing research to map the current challenges facing non-white women in the UK as they progress through education and the workplace.

“Only 6 percent of FTSE 100 CEOs and 35 percent of civil service permanent secretaries are women – but not a single woman is a woman of color,” said Monica Dey, head of policy and research at the Fawcett Society and lead author of the report.

“In order to understand why there aren’t enough women of color in leadership positions, we need to stop looking at inequality data and research in isolation and instead combine the results,” she said.

The association said the low representation of women from ethnic minorities in leadership positions was the result of “structural racism and obstacles encountered at every stage of a woman of color’s career,” starting with the educational system.

The findings are part of a larger project carried out alongside the Runnymede Trust, a UK charity specializing in race relations. The report says disparities within the education system persist, noting that black schoolgirls, for example, are more likely to face permanent exclusion in school compared to their white peers.

These early experiences of discriminatory treatment have an impact on outcomes such as exam scores and are also ‘linchpins’ in shaping confidence and self-esteem, the authors said, claiming that “these factors continue to affect performance. ‘access to employment’.

Women from ethnic minorities trying to advance in the workplace also face obstacles, according to the report, including stereotypes and a lack of support and guidance.

The Trade Union Congress recently found that 31 percent of ethnic minority women surveyed said they felt they had been ignored for promotion at work, while around 45 percent felt they had been chosen for more unpopular tasks compared to their whites. counterparts.

Querying data divided into specific ethnic groups will be key to addressing gender and racial inequalities, Dey said.

“We need to dig deeper into the data to be able to really understand how barriers impact pay and progression differently for different groups of women,” she told the Financial Times, with factors such as geography, occupation. , with education and family responsibilities all playing a role. part.

“For example, while only 14% of economically inactive white women and a quarter of Somali women are involved in unpaid care, a striking half of Bangladeshi (49%) and Pakistani (47%) women are,” a- she declared.

The report comes as UK government and institutions continue to tackle issues of racial inequality in British society following the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.

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In March, the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities released its government-commissioned 258-page report, aimed at providing an overview of racism in crime and the police, healthcare, education and the workplace. .

However, the report has come under heavy criticism for downplaying institutional racism in the UK and activists and charities have stepped up pressure on the government to make tackling racial inequality a higher priority.

Earlier this year, for example, a coalition of UK business leaders and unions urged Downing Street to introduce mandatory workplace pay gap reporting, arguing that it “would transform our understanding of racial inequality. at work “. Since 2017, companies with 250 or more people must provide compensation data by gender. But companies are not yet obligated to provide wage data disaggregated by ethnicity.

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