The c-store industry has gone a long way toward leveraging diversity and inclusion. Retailers have listened to their increasingly diverse workforce, at headquarters and in the field, and chains such as 7-Eleven Inc. have expanded minority franchisees. And—of special interest to the Network of Executive Women—the industry has promoted increasing numbers of women to leadership roles.
But a closer look reveals an opportunity largely unaddressed: As white women make slow progress ascending to leadership, women of color are too often overlooked for development opportunities and bypassed for promotions.
That’s not just wrong—it’s also shortsighted. More than 35% of U.S. women are multicultural; by 2050 they’ll account for more than half of the country’s female population.
If you are overlooking even some of the insights, contributions, skills and potential of multicultural women, you’re missing unique perspectives crucial to product selection, marketing and customer service.
You’re also turning off millennials, who want to work for companies—and shop at stores—that value diversity and inclusion.
A Spectrum of Experiences
Nearly 2,000 NEW members and supporters responding to our NEW Multicultural Women’s Leadership Survey two years ago gave us a frank assessment of the state of multicultural women in retail and consumer goods. Our report based on the survey, “Tapestry: Leveraging the Rich Diversity of Women,” was revealing:
Women of color have different workplace experiences and career challenges related to their gender and their race or ethnicity. As retailers evaluate ways to advance women, they must pay closer attention to the career challenges faced by multicultural women, including fewer growth opportunities and greater stereotyping. One-third of white women responding to our survey have experienced bias at work “because they are different”; nearly 45% of multicultural women have experienced this bias.
Multicultural women perceive the workplace differently. Nearly 70% of the multicultural women believe white men have an advantage at work, but only 55% of white women believe this to be true. Multicultural women (49%) also are much more likely than white women (37%) to believe multicultural women face greater bias than multicultural men do. But most striking was the 28-percentage-point gap on the question of whether multicultural women face greater bias than white women do: Fifty-six percent of multicultural women say they face greater bias than their white female peers, while only 28% of white women agreed.
Most corporate cultures encourage “covering.” Multicultural women feel pressure to hide some aspects of their life and are sometimes uncomfortable being authentic at work. In many cases, multicultural women deal with additional cultural, community or religious demands that make work/life integration even tougher than it is for white women—and they feel they can’t talk about these challenges in the workplace.
Diversity and Higher Sales
Convenience operators agree that a healthy bottom line starts with performance on a store’s front line. For most women in retail, successful careers start there, too. That’s why it’s critical that the policies set at headquarters are practiced consistently in every store.
Ask yourself: Do store-level promotions follow posted guidelines, or do managers or division managers play favorites? Are work hours scheduled fairly? Are women of color given the same developmental opportunities as every other employee?
Consider a study I recently came across, “A Tale of Two Climates: Diversity Climate from Subordinates’ and Managers’ Perspectives and their Role in Store Unit Sales.”
(The conclusions are easier to grasp than that title!) In their study of 6,130 workers at nearly 750 stores, Patrick McKay of Rutgers University and his colleagues at University of Houston and J.C. Penney found African-American employees in stores with high pro-diversity climates saw sales increases of about $20 per hour, an annual sales boost of nearly $21,000. Hispanic employees in these stores saw hourly sales increases of $26, for an annual gain of $27,000. White employees working in diverse environments had higher sales figures too, though not as dramatic.
In short: The more diverse the staff, the more inclusive the workplace, the more level the playing field, the higher the sales.
NEW Voices is a quarterly column exclusive to CSP that addresses the gender gap and business issues related to women’s leadership.
Joan Toth is president and CEO of the Network of Executive Women. Reach her at jtoth@newonline.org.
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