A lot of breakthroughs have been achieved in the past decades in introducing and establishing women in the labor force. As workspace equity and female rights advance, we get closer to attaining true gender equality in the corporate world.
It only takes a simple glimpse at Forbe’s most powerful women in 2020 to realize we have a remarkable set of women in leadership positions in politics, diplomacy, economy and technology: Angela merkel, Christine Lagarde, Kamala Harris, Ursula von der Leyen, Melinda French Gates, Mary Barra just to name a few.1
But as the corporate world increases women’s salary and pursues 50% of female representation in power positions, it fails to take a well-adjusted and proportional approach to all women’s demographic group individually.
There is one gap, beyond men and women in corporate, and even beyond white women and African American women in the labor force that no one’s talking about. A gap that sits still with poor work conditions, low wages and exhausting unrecognized efforts.
As corporate world focuses on an archaic monolithic approach to help empowering women, it leaves aside one of the most endangered minorities amongst female groups itself: The Latin women.
As the U.S. economy still struggles to get back on its feet after the 2020 Pandemic crisis aftermath, we learn that Latin women are 3 times the rate of white women and more than 4 times the rate of African Americans to drop-out of the workforce.2 An alarming rate that could carry dreadful consequences for household budgets and the American economy overall.
“The burden of home schooling, cooking and cleaning is taking its toll on a lot of families. Even when men are doing more than they’ve perhaps done in any other generation, it’s still not half.” – University of Michigan economist Betsey Stevenson states. 3
And this burden impacts Latin women profoundly since they are more likely to maintain a traditional view of mothers and wives as they assume caregiving and household chores responsibilities the most. “Latinas are disproportionately responsible for family care obligations versus Latino men, and they are more likely to stay at home than U.S. mothers of other racial backgrounds.”, an analysis of Latina’s exit from the workforce by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiate states.4
Besides, “Latinas are disproportionately employed in leisure, hospitality and related low-wage industries…” So, we’re talking about high unemployment rates and high likelihood rate to drop out of the workforce. And, to top it all out, we are not even talking about high salary jobs or career related opportunities for Latinas.4
How come this inflexible approach to hiring and promoting “women”, just for the sake of having the “diversity box” checked, be perceived as equality? Most Latin women are leaving their low payments jobs completely unmotivated for the lack of better opportunities.
And, what’s worse, they seem astonishingly far from executive and management positions today because of the lack of education opportunities and skill training. Are they supposed to sit back and stay home with the kids more so than any other women? Can’t we build fairer and more balanced caregiving programs or more flexible hours?
The lack of education access and flexibility in childcare leave Latinas discouraged and disincentivized when looking for better employment options, promotions and joining the labor force in general.
It’s a broken system for Latinas and a terrible situation that’s been going for a long time now, with almost no one caring for this biased situation in favor of other demographic female groups. And this block-focused women promotion policy in the corporate world is to blame.
A block that uncategorized women, putting them all together inside the same minority group label ignoring the many nuances, particular circumstances, inequities and disadvantages that many demographic sub-groups have.
Lack of promotions, unequal salaries, unrecognized efforts and long work hours, inflexible work hours for that matter. Many of these inequities in the labor force remain to this day for Latinas. Inequities that will jeopardize their upcoming growth in the labor force as they are expected to be “nearly nine times the growth rate among white women”4. An important growth that could positively fuel the U.S. economy in the years to come. But a growth that walks at an uneven and unsteady pace, making all Latin women sweat the most without any honorable mentions whatsoever.
Still, Corporate America unilaterally nurtures the success of specific groups of women, White and African American, diminishing the courageous and constant endeavor of Latin women. An upsetting and disappointing situation that renders their efforts almost invisible, being relegated or completely neglected promotion opportunities in executive roles and management or leadership positions.
Women have to be seen by race to fairly reintroduce Latinas to the labor force equation. This outdated and damaging monolithic approach in the corporate world has to end NOW to leave them a chance to bestow their best qualities in all work environments alike. Whether it is in regular payment jobs or high power positions.
Corporate America needs to fortify social safety policies that support childcare programs including paid family leave permits.
And better yet, we should be looking forward to bigger economic strategies that foster public and private sector policies that support mothers like the Marshall Plan for moms: a plan to pay mothers for their unrecognized hard work for nurturing the kids and families of the future of this nation.5
United States ranks the lowest in overall policies aimed to help and support families. A study published in the Social Forces journal uncovers the socioeconomic inequalities in health and well-being that the American nation upholds: “In a study of about 200,000 children in 20 developed nations, the United States ranked lowest in overall policies aimed at helping parents support children.”6 Where is the U.S.’s safety net for moms? Where is the equality there?
So, what do we do now? We get to work:
- We need policies that promote skill training and education between Latinas to grant them a chance to compete at a high professional level, increasing their success rate in honorable high-wages careers and leadership positions!
- We need authentic workspace equity and reasonable work ethics in promotions, salaries and power positions in order to benefit every woman and men by race, taking care of all of our demographic groups in the labor force alike!
- We need social and economic safety nets for hardworking mothers who take care of the nation’s upbringing by nurturing, raising and teaching the bright minds of tomorrow!
Together, we can make things right for everyone. But we need everybody on board to make a change, from CEO’s to working employees. Together, we can help every woman and man, regardless of their race, at the same beat in every workspace to ensure the general well-being of our labor force!
1 Forbes (2020). The world’s most powerful women 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/power-women/#3d05ea145e25
2 Horsley, S. (2020, October 27). – ‘My family needs me’: Latinas drop out of workforce at. alarming rates. Retrieved from: https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=927793195
3 Schneider, A.; Hsu, A.; Horsley, S. (2020, October 2) Multiple demands causing women to abandon workforce. Retrieved from: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/10/02/919517914/enough-already-multiple-demands-causing-women-to-abandon-workforce
4 UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (2021, June 16). Latinas were more likely than other groups to drop out of workforce during pandemic, UCLA study finds. UCLA. Retrieved from: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/latinas-dropping-out-of-workforce-pandemic
5 Marshall Plan for Moms (2021). Retrieved from: https://marshallplanformoms.com/
6 Matthew A Andersson, Michael A Garcia, Jennifer Glass (2021, December) Work–Family Reconciliation and Children’s Well-Being Disparities across OECD Countries. Social Forces, Volume 100, Issue 2, Pages 794–820. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa132
