Why in 2011 African American American Women Still encounters the glass ceiling - Research Paper Example

?Table of contents 2 Introduction 3 Methodology 4 Findings and discussions 4 Disparity in the workplace 5 Reasons for discriminations 6 Companies that allow African American women to excel and Their secrets to success 7 Reasons for success 7 Sample Companies that hire African-American females 8 Conclusion 11 References 12 Abstract Study refers to the disparity of employment between African-American women with other Hispanic races in the United States. This study finds it ironic that in this age of technological advances and modernization, the perception of racial discrimination in the workplace still exists. In this research, reasons for unequal treatment in employment are discussed, and insights of successful careers of African-American women are presented. Methodology used is exploratory research using published information and statistics from journals and website. Findings will have relevance for policy makers in designing programs for human rights. Study showed that African-American women are disenfranchised in the workplace because of lack of skills and education and long history of cultural diversity. Findings revealed that there are highly successful careers of African-American Women because of education. Study also showed that African-American Women have business acumen that could make them successful in self-employment Your name Sociology Professor’s name Date A core assessment of unemployment issues of African-American women Introduction Unemployment rate in the United States has risen because of the economic crisis. In 2011, according to reports, unemployment rate has gone up to 9.5 percent. The highest unemployment rate, according to data is during 1982 which was 10.8 percent. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics has categorized unemployment in 2011 according to race: Race % Unemployment rate African-American 16.2 Hispanics 11.9 Whites 8.0 Asian 7.0 Source: US Bureau of Labor & Statistics, 2011 The number of unemployed African-American women is 13.4 percent as compared to 7.1 percent of unemployment in white women (US Bureau of Labor & Statistics, 2011 ) It is already year 2011, and in this age, black women are still complaining of female discriminations in the workplace. This study will look at the underlying reasons for disparity in the employment conditions of African-Americans with those of their counterpart of white and other races in the workplace and find out if there is any truth to this complaint. Generalizations cannot be made as there are those African American women who have been successful in their career; and still there are many companies that hire colored women. Why is this so? Reasons for this have to be established so that proper policy guides can be done by the authorities in the government in planning of strategies for employment. Methodology. The method of research to be used is exploratory. Secondary sources coming from articles, news and reviews published in journals, books and internet sources will be viewed to form a concrete opinion on the matter. Findings and discussions Disparity in the workplace. Several studies have affirmed discriminations of black employment. Segregated data of black women and men has been difficult to research and therefore sets this as a limitation of the study. Allegreto, Amerikanere & Pitts 2011 stated in their data brief on black employment and unemployment that the paid careers for African Americans are the computer networking and telecommunications paying ; architects ; and medical technologies technicians . In this career, there is a disparity in pay between blacks and whites such that the pay for architects for white counterparts is higher at $65,000 and black architects are paid less more at $55,000. In general engineering, African-Americans are paid $60,000 per year while white counterparts earn $64,000; and African-American computer scientists earn $61,000 while white American computer scientists earn $80,000. Von Haynes writes in his article published in Washington Post that unemployment among African-Americans is expected to reach a 25-year high in 2010 while the unemployment levels between the whites and other races remain relatively lower. Haynes said forecast remains the same in all states and is expected to continue the following year. Haynes said that there has always been disparity in employment even during boom times, and therefore throughout recession, unemployment has grown much faster in the sector of African-Americans than whites. Furthermore, the unemployment has created a wider gap between men and women employment with men outpacing women. Reasons for discriminations According to Haynes, reasons for the disproportionate treatment of Black Americans hover at “the long history of discriminatory policies and practices that include outright segregations, redlining, misguided urban renewal plans and predatory lending that prevented people of color from building wealth.” Racial bias is the predominant complaint of African-American workers, as Hughes and Mark (1997) found out in their study. Racial bias remains to be present today, perhaps because of cultural definition that has become to be an institutional discrimination and interpersonal prejudice. Accordingly findings of Mark’s study showed that racial bias becomes a predictor of job quality of African-American women workers in white setting. Black women reported more institutional discrimination when they are in service, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations; while there is more reported interpersonal prejudice in women in managerial, professional, managerial, technical occupations and those in sales and clerical positions. Walker & Graz, in 2007 study on “diversity in the workplace” found out that three in every ten African Workers have experienced discrimination and unfair treatment in the workplace. African-American respondents in this study said that they received severe to moderate discriminations. Accordingly, the most common discriminations received are that they are not taken seriously, they do not receive credit for their work, they felt their ideas or input are ignored, co-workers making derogatory comments to or in front of workers, overlooked for promotion, not being provided with the same training as other workers, not being assigned projects that provide greater company visibility and co-workers attitude of talking behind worker’s back. A recent survey in 2011 holds that 25% of African-American workers still feel discriminated in the workplace. Study showed that these workers felt discriminated on the jobs held since Hispanic workers are more preferred to hold administrative or clerical work and that they have the lowest representation in management roles, and most likely to receive $100,000 compensation. Survey also showed that discrimination in compensation and advancement opportunities differed for Asians and African-Americans, both groups plan to change jobs in a better economy. In entertainment, a report shows that African-American women are marginalized or phased out in popular cultures. Star pulse.com (2008) said that there is a dearth of quality images of African-American in television and film, although some have achieved stardom that catapulted them to awards. However, in many instances, African-American female actresses’ roles are scripted “as overtly sexual eye-candy”. They are seen on TV, music videos wearing flimsy attires that titillate male viewers. As they become much in demand on television, roles given to them are raunchy, profane and explicit abundance; and as such, create a perception that Hollywood is choosing to sell certain images of black women to global audience. Companies that allow African American women to excel and their secrets to success Reasons for success. Big companies employ black women in their companies and have allowed them to climb the ladder to hierarchical success. In the issue of Glass Hammer in 2008, ten African American women were identified who became successful because they were educationally qualified for their position. The successful women in our examples have completed college degree courses and have masters degree from prestigious universities. From the examples gathered, these women leaders achieved success despite of their color and this did not serve as a discriminatory factor in their employment. They have used their education to establish their positions in the company. The work and job assignments given to them are of great magnitude such as handling and managing global positions, and the kind of work is so intricate in the field of business and finance. Sample companies that hire African-American females Glass Hammer, 2008 provides the companies and its black women executives, and are correspondingly reported in this research. Xerox, a global company and listed as a Fortune 500 company has a great track record of promoting women executives to the highest management positions. For instance, its president is Ursula Burns, an African-American and CEO Anne Mulchay. Burns has earned her position because she has the appropriate educational background for the position. Burns has a Masters degree in Engineering from Columbia. Another company that has appointed an African American to head its global operations is Citigroup Realty Services. Susan Chapman has an MBA from the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Business. As head of operations and at a young age under 40, Chapman manages day to day operations of the company in 96 countries. Edith Cooper graduated from Harvard and has an MBA from North Western Kellogg School of Business. She presently works as head of the North American Hedge Fund Distribution, Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities, Goldman Sachs. She earned this position just 2 years after being hired at Goldman Sachs. Merill Lynch is one of the world’s leading financial management and advisory companies that provides financial advisory and investment banking services. This company has chosen an African-American woman, Amy Ellis-Simon to head its multiproduct sales team which deals with a wide range of equity and debt products, including convertibles, equity derivatives and fixed income. She has completed a degree as an analyst from University of Michigan. She has been considered as one of the “Top 40 under 40” by Crain’s magazine, recognizing her management abilities. She shares her wisdom and success as she is part of a program that assists young people of color with opportunities in the private sector. Mellody Hobson graduated from Princeton and is also named by Chicago Business News as one of the Top Women under 40. She works as President of Ariel Capital Management LLC, the largest black-owned money management firm. She is also a commentator of ABC’s good Morning America and defended the mutual industry in testimony before Congress. Tracey Travis inspires young women who are interested in pursuing a career path similar to hers. Travis works as a CFO of Polo Ralph Lauren Corp, which is a $3.3 billion apparel, accessories and home furnishing company. She is part of the management that operates the company in about 275 retail stores in the U.s. and 100 affiliates abroad. There are also instances that African-American women are found in other professions such as politics. Rudin (2005) reports that there are few African-American women who excelled in politics as 22 black women were elected to Congress and one in the Senate since 1968 up to 2004. In a separate article done by Michelle Chandler, and published in several journals, it was shown that African-American females excel in education and entrepreneurship, but it appeared that many of them are undergraduates. In their research, two-thirds of African-American females are undergraduates, and many have expressed interests in business. Chandler reflects on the business interests of African-American females, as statistics showed that between 2002 and 2008, the number of businesses owned by black women rose by 19%, which is twice the number of all other firms that generated a $29 billion in sales nationwide. As such, they are considered as self-employed and entrepreneurs. An example is Gwendolyn Smith Iloani, a successful entrepreneur who formed a private equity firm which is considered as the fourth largest black owned private equity firm in the US. She used to be the managing director of an American firm until she was able to persuade senior executives to become her partner in the business she formed. Her company provides affordable housing in Connecticut. She has received an MBA from University of Hartford (Glass Hammer, 2008). This new status of African-American women belies the perception of black women as being oppressed in the workplace because of racism, as professed by Dr. Katherine Philipps, of Kellogs of School of Management. She sees the African-American women today, as someone who is independent, competent and demanding of all respects – which is a classic leadership traits that makes up achievement possibilities (Chandler, 2011) Conclusion It has been clear from evidences presented that there African-American women today still find it difficult to find equality in the workplace. First, because of the institutional culture that has been forged by the long history of race differences. Second, because they lack proper education and skills needed in the workplace; evidence found that many of them are undergraduates. Hiring procedures of companies give preference to applicants or employees who have completed college courses and have achieved higher education. Examples of successful African-American women in large companies showed they have competitive advantage because of their education. Education has been found to be important to eradicate racial discrimination. However, efforts to increase interests of young African-Americans to finish education seem to be lacking in the part of the government. Evidence presented is the report from the US Department of Education that says “nearly half of the African-American students from low income areas drop out in the range of 40-45%” (Atlanta Post, 2011) However, this does not mean that they will not succeed since study showed that many African-American women succeed in being self-employed and operating their own business. Their success ratio shows that they are learned in entrepreneurial activities that does not account for racial discrimination. References “African Americans and Discrimination In The Work Place” 2011. Caseclosed 2 weblog. http://caseclosed2.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/african-americans-and-discrimination-in-the-workplace/ Alanta Post. 2011. 8 important statistics that black American needs to recognize now. Viewed 04 July 2011 from http://atlantapost.com/2011/02/09/8-important-statistics-that-black-america-should-pay-attention-to-now/4/ Allegretto, Sylvia, Amerikaner, Ary and Pitts Steven. 2011. Data Brief: Black employment and unemployment in May 2011. Work in the Black Community. University of California, Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education Bureau of Labor and Statistics. 2011. Employment status of the civilian population by race, sex and age. Economics News Release. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm Careerbuilder.com 2007. Three-in-Ten African American Workers Have Experienced Discrimination or Unfair Treatment at Work CareerBuilder.com and Kelly Services Survey Shows. Viewed 04 July 2011 from http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?id=pr378&sd=6%2F19%2F2007&ed=12%2F31%2F2007 Chandler, Michelle, 2011. African American Women Are Moving Ahead Rapidly Center for Social Innovation. Stanford Graduate School of Business. Viewed 04 July 2011 http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/african-american-women-are-moving-ahead-rapidly Hanes, Dione V. 2010. US unemployment rate for blacks projected at 25-year high. The Washington Post. Viewed 04 July 2011 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/14/AR2010011404085.html Hughes, Diane and Dodge, Mark A. 1997. African American women in the workplace: relationships between job conditions, racial bias at work, and perceived job quality. American Journal of Community Psychology | October 1, 1997. Viewed 04 July 2011 from http://business.highbeam.com/435401/article-1G1-20608748/african-american-women-workplace-relationships-between Rudin, Ken 2005. African-American Women in Congress. NPR. Viewed 04 July 2011 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4277551 Star Pulse. March 2008. The image of black women in entertainment. Starpulse.com. Viewed 04 July 2011 from http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/03/24/the_image_of_black_women_in_entertainment The Glass Hammer, 2008. Top African American women in business. Movers & Shakers. Viewed 04 July 2008 http://www.theglasshammer.com/news/2008/01/24/top-african-american-women-in-business-…other-than-oprah/ Erin Abrams. Trading Economics.2011. United States unemployment rate. Viewed 04 July 2011 from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate Read More