Send This Story
Career Strategies For African-American Women Seeking The Corporate Suite
Knowledge @ Emory
by Myra A. Thomas
June 24, 2008
T
he sixth annual “Black Women on Wall Street” event, held June 19 at Merrill Lynch
headquarters in New York City, attracted top African-American women in the financial services
industry to discuss career strategies for advancement to the corporate boardroom. Co-sponsored by
Merrill Lynch and the Executive Leadership Council, a nonprofit leadership organization for senior
level African-American executives in the Fortune 500, the event attracted about 350 minority women
professionals. Merrill Lynch chairman and CEO Stan O'Neal – a member of the Executive Leadership Council – offered the opening words and reiterated his company’s commitment to diversity, and
then noting the power of networking as a “key element of success for all executives, but especially
for women of color.”
The theme of networking reappeared throughout the event, as Westina Matthews Shatteen,
Merrill Lynch managing director for community business development, moderated a panel of top
African-American finance executives. Shatteen also reminded the audience that diversity efforts are
a wise business decision for corporations today. Michelle Ebanks, a panelist and president of
Essence Communications, agreed with Shatteen’s statement, noting the growing purchasing power of African-Americans. Ebanks argued for corporations to market and tailor their
efforts, including recruiting, to a more diverse community.
“As a consumer group, African-American women today are powerful,” noted Ebanks. Within the
overall segment of African-Americans, our purchasing power is $800-billion annually, or 54% in our
communities.” Citing additional statistics, Ebanks noted that the number of African-American women
earning $50,000 or more is growing at twenty times the rate of women in the U.S. “due to the strong
sense of leadership and capability that corporations require to be competitive in today’s
marketplace.”
Indeed, understanding the value of a diverse workforce is significant, observes Sabrina Bowens,
vice president and asset allocation specialist for Atlanta-based Trusco Capital Management, an
institutional investment advisory firm, as diverse managers just may be better able to reach out to
a more diverse client base. In a separate interview, Bowens noted that having diverse talent on
board – individuals sensitive to clients of broader ethnic groups – becomes a bottom line
consideration. Bowens graduated from Emory University’s
Goizueta Business School Evening MBA program in 2001,
and she currently holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. “Businesses should
continue to allocate resources to bringing in diverse talent pools from all walks of life,” says
Bowens. “The business environment is dynamic, the demographics are changing, and wealth is being
distributed more widely. Companies that are slow to respond will not be competitive.” Noting
the statistics and referring to the comments from the event, she noted the connection between
having a diverse executive pool and tapping into a diverse client base.
Grooming the Next Generation
Of course, getting the next generation of African-American women to rise up the financial
ranks in greater numbers will require many more of these women to pursue a financial path in
college. Getting more African-American women enrolled in university programs in accounting,
finance, and other business related areas is essential to increasing a diverse talent pool in
the industry, says Dr. Shawn Davis, visiting accounting professor at Goizueta Business School.
But the degree path is certainly forged much earlier than the years typically spent at a
university. Notes Davis, “Typically, students of all races start to formulate their career
goals and aspirations during the high school years. In fact, for most high school students their
first role model and mentor is their teacher. As such, early awareness programs, such as high
school career outreach efforts that focus on the financial services industry, are paramount and a
powerful strategy to get students, in particular African-American women, excited about this
traditionally male-dominated and highly pivotal and compensated profession. These programs should
be primarily designed to increase understanding of career-development and promotion opportunities
and prerequisites.”
Davis also believes that history plays a role in the degree path, and consequently, the
career path as well. She says, “The early generation of professional African-American women studied
liberal arts and teacher education. Therefore, it is not surprising that archival sources show more
African-American women are awarded degrees in education, social sciences and humanities. Often
though, it is hard for African-American women to find other women within their ethnic or racial
group as mentors in other fields, particularly, financial services, because they are so scarce.”
Having same race role models and mentors then does become essential, she notes, to “provide a sense
of familiarity and understanding of one’s perspectives.” Still, she admits that as the U.S. becomes
more culturally diverse, race and gender are becoming less important criteria for the selection of
a mentor. Davis adds, “Rather, a mentor who knows the political ins and outs of the business is
sought. Also, having two or more mentors or informal networks are more commonplace.”
Additionally, women executives of color “need to continue to bridge the gap between the
classroom and the boardroom,” says Bowens. “Professionals of color and women in the investment
business should be committed to being active in the classrooms, bringing knowledge about the
business and their specific areas of expertise.” As well, she notes that corporations must continue
mentoring, diversity, and internship initiatives – additional efforts to expose students and young
professionals to the opportunities in the financial field. Bowens says that her initial interest in
a finance career came from an undergraduate finance class. This ultimately led her to pursue a
career in the investment business more than 11 years ago. She adds, “Since that time, I have
risen in the ranks, starting my career on Wall Street – in a diversity leadership program,
interestingly enough – and climbing my way up to eventually managing money for investment firms.”&
amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>
Work-Life Balance & Other Concerns
The considerable time investment behind a high-pressure position in the financial world just
might be another reason why women of all colors are opting for other career paths. Goizueta’s Davis
does believe that lifestyle and creativity concerns can sometimes cause women to pick other fields.
“But they simply need to know the benefits of being in a finance position,” she says. Davis
cites the high salaries, and she adds that despite the perception, the lifestyle is comparable to
many other professional fields that require initiative and a strong work ethic.
At the “Black Women on Wall Street” event, the panelists echoed a similar sentiment on
work-life balance. Panelist and Polo Ralph Lauren CFO Tracey Travis noted, “Be aware that there is an up-front investment of time when you join an
organization. In the first ninety days, people will be forming opinions about you and your work, so
it is critically important to put in more time until you can build the team to meet the standards
you have.” Panelist and former Verizon executive Jerri DeVard put it bluntly: “This challenge never
goes away, and the higher up you go in the ranks, the harder it is to achieve. Be very realistic
about the demands of the job, and know what is important to you. We find time to do the things that
we really want to do.”
Some of the pressure can also result from the stereotyping and double standards sometimes
inherent in male-dominated fields, says Goizueta’s Davis. Unfortunately, she says that this
pressure isn’t uncommon “where women have extra performance pressure, and African-American women
even more pressure, to gain the same level of respect and credibility they deserve.” This is where
a firm commitment to diversity and development opportunities becomes key, adds Davis, to stop
any disenchantment with corporate politics and discouragement that they are not making a
significant contribution to the overall strategy of the firm.” Still, the numbers remain daunting,
with African-American women making up less than 1.5% of corporate officers in 85% of the Fortune
500 list, according to research conducted by Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory
organization working to advance women in business.
Looking Ahead
Despite the figures, the times are changing, and African-American women are getting to
positions of authority that they never would have held just a short decade or two before. Notes
Bowens, “As much as some would like to think that business resources may be depleted as it relates
to diversity efforts and that it may be questionable as to whether these efforts are making a
difference, I strongly believe that now, more so than ever, especially in the investment arena, we
are, in fact, making significant strides.” Looking at the investment management business, Bowens
notes, “Traditionally, there have been structural problems in the business that made it difficult
for women and people of color to prosper. Over the last several years, minority and
women-owned emerging firms in the investment management business, in particular, have been sought
after by institutional clients across the country.” Now, the level of expertise and credentials in
the African-American community are finally making an impact, she adds. “We have garnered the
expertise and credentials to be savvy investment professionals, relying less on the name of our
alma mater and prestigious affiliations, and more so on a pure passion to want to make a difference
in this business.”
