The Diversity Factor © 2009
ISSN 1545-2808
Summer 2009
Barriers Continue to Block Advancement
Volume 17, Number 3

Table of Contents

Editor’s Foreword
April W. Klimley (aklimley@eyca.com)

News, Views and Gossip
Caitlin Kelly
The news covered in this column ranges from the Cambridge confrontation between Boston police sergeant James Crowley and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, to how having interracial roommates can reduce bias, and how a city in British Columbia (Canada) has built a new mosque in hopes of attracting more Muslim professionals to that province.

Resources
April W. Klimley (aklimley@eyca.com)
The Diversity Training Activity Book: 50 Activities for Promoting Communication and Understanding at Work, AMACOM, a division of American Management Association (2009) This section contains a detailed review of a new large-size workbook book for diversity training. The book covers both fundamentals and new trends in the field. Today many corporations are focused on topics such as "cultural awareness" and "global diversity" as they fight to recover market share or regain leadership in world markets coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. And this book provides for these new trends without sacrificing fundamental principles of inclusion. As the only diversity book published by AMACOM (which publishes only one a year on its list), this workbook stands out as a good resource for the diversity and/or training professional.

Gender Wage Gap in the Teenage Labor Market
Yasemin Besen-Cassino, Ph.D., Assistant Professor. Sociology, Montclair State University (beseny@mail.montclair.edu)
Most people assume there is some "inherent" reason for a wage gap between men and women. These reasons, or hypotheses, range from different attitudes about work and money to different qualifications. In this article, Yasemin Besen-Cassino attempts to pinpoint the origin of this gap—at least in terms of when it begins, in the teenage years. Her results may surprise you.

Delighting in Positive Discrimination—or "Discernment": A True Case History
K.T. Connor, Ph.D. and founder and owner of Applied Axiometrics (ktconnor@applied-axiometrics.com)
When we talk about being "color blind" and not letting a person’s differences block advancement, we sometimes overlook differences in personality and temperament. By ignoring these innate tendencies, companies may run into problems when it comes to hiring and promotion and make decisions that inadvertently reinforce racism. In this unusually frank essay, organizational consultant and expert K.T. Connor provides a case history of what can happen when thinking patterns are overlooked—and provides practical advice to human resources professionals on how to overcome such a bias when they’re in the process of assessment through the use of more sophisticated evaluation tools such as axiometrics.

Women of Color Still Face Barriers at U.S. Law Firms, According to a New Catalyst Study
Excerpted from a study entitled "Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms"
Report by Deepali Bagati, Catalyst, N.Y. (Copyright 2009)
Lead sponsor: Sidley Austin LLP; Partnering Sponsors: Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
A new report from Catalyst confirms what many already suspected: Women of color still face tremendous challenges for advancement in law firms. Based on a study survey of 1,242 lawyers, the report reveals a sobering picture. According to the report, women of color perceive their workplace as having an exclusionary culture replete with racial/ethnic stereotyping. They also feel that they are being overlooked by diversity efforts and that these efforts are imperfectly executed. Other research has shown that women of color leave their firms at a much higher rate than white women; in fact, nearly 75 percent leave by their fifth year.

Catalyst’s report sheds light on the major roadblocks, which seem to come down to a subtle combination of institutional discrimination and unwanted and/or unfair critical attention that lead to an exclusionary workplace culture. This article contains some of the most important findings.

Blueprint for Action in Law Firms to Advance Women of Color—from Catalyst Report
Excerpted from "Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms"
Report by Deepali Bagati, Catalyst, N.Y. (Copyright 2009)
Lead sponsor: Sidley Austin LLP; Partnering Sponsors: Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
A recently published Catalyst report reveals that women of color continue to face major barriers to advancement at first- and second-tier law firms—and explores the reasons for these roadblocks. In this article, we offer the recommendations the report provides for how to overcome these challenges—as well as details of diversity initiatives at four companies, all Catalyst award-winners, that have implemented programs that successfully addressed these very issues.

Is the D.C. Press Corps More Diverse, Post-Election?
Wayne Dawkins, Assistant Professor, Hampton University (wayne.dawkins@hamptonu.edu)
At President Obama’s first press conference, television viewers saw the faces of more reporters of color who had not been visible before. That picture, coupled with Gwen Ifill, the moderator of PBS’s "Washington Week" as well as the vice presidential debate, seemed to bode well for progress among journalists of color. But did it? Has there really been progress in creating a more diverse media? In this article, Wayne Dawkins comes to some surprising conclusions as he reports the good news—and the bad—on this topic.

Editor's Note: Authors are responsible for the accuracy and content of their articles which do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, Elsie Y Cross Associates, Inc.