A recent study from Brookings Institute broke down how women, particularly women of color, face both racism and sexism which block their career advancements. Adia Harvey Wingfield, Washington College Professor of Sociology, joins Jennifer Rogers, Sibile Marcellus, and Kristin Myers to discuss what factors are impacting women of color in the workplace.
Video Transcript
SIBILE MARCELLUS: Welcome back to “2020, A Time for Change.” I’m Sibile Marcellus. Corporate America made a lot of promises about diversifying their workforces and offering opportunities for career advancement for Black workers after the death of George Floyd.
But keeping those promises means taking a hard look at the obstacles that have been in the way. A recent Brookings Institution report takes a look at what’s been holding women back. Joining us now is Adia Harvey Wingfield, professor of sociology at Washington University and the author of this report.
Now Adia, your report cites specific forms of sexual harassment and subtle, but pervasive, doubts about intelligence. Could you give us a sense, specifically how this plays out in the workplace and how it can block the career advancement of Black women?
ADIA HARVEY WINGFIELD: Sure. So one of the things that research finds is that when we are talking about the challenges that women of color, and Black women in particular, face in these employment settings, is that when they are underrepresented, when they are the only one, when they’re one of very few in these workplace settings, they’re more likely to face these discriminatory patterns where they are subject to expectations that they can’t succeed, that they lack the skills, that they lack the knowledge and the capabilities of advancing to upper level positions within an organization.
In some cases and in some settings, that can transform and lead to sexual harassment where women are subject to various forms of mistreatment based on gender and the way that it intersects with race. That can lead to overt propositioning. It can lead to more subtle and narrower forms of harassment.
Ultimately, what these types of environments create overall are spaces where it becomes very challenging for Black women to succeed and to thrive. Not because they lack the skills or the capabilities or the proficiency or what have you, but more so because the environments in which they are working are ones that are really not really designed for them to thrive and to succeed or designed to offer the support and the infrastructure that allows them to do their best work.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: Adia, I also wanted to mention that you don’t just mention Black women, but also Asian-American women and Latina women in terms of facing challenges in the workplace. Let’s talk about the wage disparities. How does that play out in corporate America?
ADIA HARVEY WINGFIELD: Right, so I think it’s very important and necessary to highlight that when we talk about these issues facing women of color, this really does mean women of color, broadly speaking. The data does show that Black women in particular bear kind of the brunt of these types of issues.
But when it comes to the wage gap in particular, we often hear the statistic bandied about that women earn $0.79 for every dollar that men make. That’s true, but we also have to be a little more particular and think about which women it is that we are talking about when we use that statistic. Black women make less than that, and I think the data show that they earn about $0.64 for every dollar that white men make.
For Latina women, it’s $0.54. So those intersections of race and gender really matter in terms of shaping the outcomes and the wage outcomes in particular that are present for women of color in these environments. And it leads to real measurable disparities in terms of what they earn and what they are able to secure in terms of their economic stability.
KRISTIN MYERS: So Adia, I only have about a minute or so with you here, and I’m going to ask you to kind of do the impossible, which is come up with a solution in about 90 seconds or less. So we have your research. We have the research of countless many analysts and researchers. We know that companies have this data at hand. They know that there are disparities between the different races.
So what is the next step then? How do we get prescriptive? Is it just forcing them to be accountable and hope that their biases fall away as a part of that? Or do we try to tackle the social bias first and hope that they create some sort of accountability on their own?
ADIA HARVEY WINGFIELD: Great, well, I love difficult questions. To quote Jay-Z, difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week. So I think these are actually questions that we can address in a short period of time because we do have data and research that indicates what needs to happen. I think that there is a lot of research that indicates that organizations have to make changes in several key areas.
How organizations hire workers is a big part of how we see these disparities occurring. A lot of the ways in which people get promoted in terms of the relationships that they have with mentors and sponsors within an organization also matters in terms of who is able to advance in organizations and who is not able to advance.
It’s also important for organizations to take stock of the experiences that their workers have in these settings and to be attuned to the climate and the organizational culture that employees face when they are in these particular settings, and to be attuned to the fact that the experiences that workers of color are going to face actually vary depending on the position where they are employed in the organization.
What an executive’s experience looks like is not necessarily what an entry level worker’s experience looks like. And what an entry level worker’s experience entails is not necessarily synonymous with that of a middle manager. So there are steps that organizations can take that involve– that are research-based that can give them steps towards making these kinds of changes.
I think honestly, in many cases, it is more so a matter of will. I think that organizations have to be willing to do what is difficult work that takes a while in order to transform their spaces to be ones that are more amenable and available to communities of color.
JEN ROGERS: We’re going to have to have you back because I mean, I could talk to you for an hour. But unfortunately, we don’t have an hour. You did a really good job, though, answering Kristin’s question in the time allotted, though. So next set, though, I’m going to go, and we’ll get you on some more things. Thanks so much.
ADIA HARVEY WINGFIELD: That’d be great. I would love to return. Thank you.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: Yeah, no, we definitely appreciate it. Adia Harvey Wingfield, professor of sociology at Washington University, thanks so much.
ADIA HARVEY WINGFIELD: Thank you.
