"Best" list for women of color grows

This year Working Mother chose eight employers as Best Companies for Women of Color, up from three in 2003 and six in 2004.

Winners were Allstate, American Express, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, General Mills, Hewlett Packard, IBM, JPMorgan Chase and PricewaterhouseCoopers. To make the list, they had to disclose details about numbers of women of color hired, salaries, advancement and training opportunities. They also had to allow employees to be surveyed. The results: fewer women of color than either men or white women believe management has a commitment to diversity, fewer brag about their companies to friends and fewer are satisfied with their advancement. More want more formal leadership training and mentoring. In a related article, Working Mother reports that a survey by The Business and Professional Women's Foundation has found that African American and Hispanic women place even more importance than white women on family assistance like employer-provided maternity and childcare benefits. Survey author Vicky Lovell suggests the reason could simply be that white women have better access to family-care programs than their multicultural female counterparts. The discrepancy, she suggests, could mean higher turnover among women of color.

# 20115 WORKING MOTHER, 6-05, pgs. 21, 76

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