White Women...The New Face of Diversity

For some small minded folks, hearing the word diversity automatically equates to affirmative action and minorities taking jobs away from qualified white men. For others, it simply implies race or ethnicity. Then there's those who believe it is about age. But if you tune your ears to the right frequency and pay close attention you will notice that it is now all about women---specifically white women.

Gender diversity seems to be the only part of the diversity movement that has seen gains. Companies across multiple industries are making progress with hiring more women and promoting them to higher roles or positions where there is underrepresentation, but the overwhelming majority of these women are white.

Historically, whenever there has been an equality movement or anti-discrmintaory initiative, white women have always been the greatest beneficiaries. Why? Simply because white men let them. That is not intended to be a sexist or misogynistic statement, but to point to the typical case of damsel in distress, empathy by association, or nepotism from afar mindset that can creep in when white men choose to help (white) women.  The "diversity movement" is no different.

Intel and Slack recently released their transparency employment reports and both companies are clear leaders with their diversity initiatives, yet their efforts in terms of bridging the ethnicity gap in tech employment pales in caparison to their growth with gender diversity. 

It is great that companies like Intel and Slack are seeing percentage growth of women employees at around 40%, but when you only have white women reaping the benefits, is that truly progress? For example---Slack hired 74 white people, 62 of them were women and only 3 were black.  Is that not a problem?

This isn't an attack on Intel or Slack, but more importantly an entire industry and society that refuses to embrace inclusion to its fullest.

Looking at the leading "Women In Tech" conferences, you rarely, if ever, see a black woman (or any woman of color) headlining or involved in panel discussions. You will likely see more white men speaking out about change at these conferences. I have attended several women diversity forums and there was no variety of women, just white women discussing diversity and the most disturbing part is that none of them ever mentioned racial or ethnic disparities.  

There is certainly a rise in diversity amongst women, but one has to ask the question, where are all the women of color?

I am torn because while I recognize the importance of more women in tech and other industries, I can't help but notice how very little progress is being made with people of color.  These companies are comprised of some of the smartest people in the world that can develop self driving cars, platforms that globally connect people, and microprocessors smaller than a coin that power the worlds fastest computers, but they can't figure out how to effectively build more inclusive companies?

It is inevitable that someone will comment and say, "Diversity is about ALL people regardless of their race! It is colorless!" While this statement is ideal, it is not realistic and the numbers speak to the truth. Yes, diversity is getting better, but only for one group, white women.  People of color, both men and women, are still waiting in line for their piece of the equality pie.

There is a correlation between white male leaders focusing on diversity, but unconsciously (or consciously) hiring majority white women. That is progress, but not change. You have white women diversity advocates focusing on gender equality, but never promote racial equality. Again progress, but not change. When it comes to diversity, company leaders can't see the forest for the trees---then again maybe it's the opposite.  

Do not take my writing as anti-women or anti-white women because that is the furthest from the truth. I am challenging you to look at this problem deeper.  We can't have diversity for some and not for all.  We have to come up with creative solutions that go beyond diversity recruitment and focus on the the deeper issue's at play.  I am optimistic that we are approaching much needed change, but for now diversity is all about white women, so I'll just wait.

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Louis Byrd is the Owner & Creative Director of Mellie Blue Branding. 

Mellie Blue is a cross-cultural branding agency that takes a culturally relevant approach to helping you innovate and grow your brand through strategy, creativity and the fundamental idea of being more human.