Of male hegemonists and corporate disparity
"Not all movements are progress"
Frederick Douglas
In an excellent overview on women CEOs in corporate America, Donecia Pea writes today that women represent less than 2% of the Fortune 1,000 CEOs and just 1.4% of the Fortune 500 CEOs!
According to a study, on the Fortune 500 corporate boards, in last decade, the average rate of increase in women’s representation was one half of one percentage point per year! And if women held only 14.7% of board seats, only 3.4% were women of color. At this rate, it would take another 70 years for women to hold approximately 50% of board seats (Catalyst. Right-click to save in PDF)!
The problem persists on the front of statistics, no doubt. But what’s also needed within discourse of the number studies is a critical emphasis on the genealogy of disparity and ways to work on it.
Such a trenchant corporate disparity can not be merely incidental. And the rate of increase in women's participation is not indicative of any progress. It’s perpetuation of a system of oppression in terms of both gender and race producing a class division. Current forms of implementations of civil rights laws are proving ineffectual to handle the inequity, and fresh radical steps need be taken to undo the centuries of exploitation. It’s not the ladder of fair competition that women are not stepping up on; it’s the unfair monopolists who are not ready to inch away from the seats of power that’s creating hostile prospects.
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