It’s a great opportunity to be a panelist at Evanta’s CIO Summit held on December 15, 2021. We’ll be talking about women, minorities, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. A stark reality is that, among many professions, we simply do not produce enough qualified women and minority candidates who enter the workforce in America.

Beyond that, once women and minorities enter the workforce, they are not integrated into the workforce such that their careers progress at the same rate as white men. At the entry level, white men comprise about 37% of the workforce, but white men comprise 60% of C-Suite positions. From entry-level jobs to the C-Suite, we lose the very vast majority of minorities and virtually all African American women. Women also see significant attrition on their climb up the corporate ladder.

Globally, the US ranks near the median with respect to women achieving CEO positions and on boards. Only about 5% of American CEOs are female, and only 25% of women board directors are women.

It’s clear from the data that there is much room for improvement with respect to women, minorities, diversity, and inclusion in American society today. It’s time that we move beyond simple lip service to these important issues and that we make significant strides to correct multi-generational inequities that exist in America, and the world today.

Only by producing more qualified candidates, can women and minorities be hired into the workforce, and only by mentoring and developing those minorities and women can we shepherd them through a career progression. We must also learn to value the unique role that women have in society and learn to value child-rearing as valuable with work experience. As a former military officer, the author also believes we should learn to more accurately map military service to civilian careers. It’s obvious that we have much work to do, but with a positive attitude, grass-root initiatives like IT Girls Foundation, and InspireEdu, and a lot of hard work, we are chipping away at the inequities.