It's Your Week: White men still run corporate America
“All this talk about diversity, equality and inclusion. Where is the diversity?”
Many large companies pledged to diversify leadership after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. A new Paste BN analysis of named executive officers at S&P 100 companies found that Black executive leadership is growing, but women and other people of color have not made as much progress.
White men still run corporate America.
👋 Good morning, and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for subscribers. This is Madalyn Hoerr, Paste BN's deputy managing editor of planning, taking over while your usual host is out of the office. Thank you for having me!
This week, we talk with investigative data reporter Jayme Fraser about her work with Jessica Guynn, senior technology and economic opportunity reporter, examining why corporate America looks nothing like the rest of America.
But first, don't miss these stories available exclusively with your Paste BN subscription:
- 'They can come for you': For Russian protesters, a free-speech crackdown sharpens threat
- Jeff Zients, aka 'Mr. Fix-It,' takes on DC's most brutal job: White House chief of staff
- US nursing homes aren't safe amid climate crisis, report finds. And it's getting worse.
- Elite, white New Orleans: Mardi Gras has not freed itself from vestiges of racism
- Opinion: CNN's Don Lemon still gets it wrong. His non-apology for sexist comments is what not to do.
Corporate diversity
After large companies made diversity promises in 2020, Fraser and Guynn wanted to see how well they lived up to their word. In three years, they've published 20 stories on the topic – and even more if you count the times their reporting added context to breaking news, like when two core Black executives at Amazon left the company.
"We're doing the series because we've seen more Americans demand change more loudly in the last few years and didn't see the kinds of accountability tools and deep reporting for the general public," Fraser told me this week.
In their latest installment – How diverse is corporate America? There are more Black leaders, but white men still run it – Fraser said she was surprised to learn there has been improvement for Black men, but the change has not extended to Black women "for whom the pace of change is glacial."
"At the current rate, we won't see people at the top of American companies who look like the U.S. workforce for centuries," Guynn said. "Yes, centuries."
- Spoiler alert: In March, you will be able to learn more about top female executives.
Fraser says she has "found our deep dives into the challenges and successes of women of color to be the most rewarding so far. ... Our Q&As have also been refreshing because you hear directly from corporate leaders about their experiences and solutions, like this one from Ursula Burns," the first Black woman to run a Fortune 500 company.
Don't miss two new subscriber-exclusive Q&As with Chris Womack, Southern Company's incoming CEO, and Calvin Butler Jr., a first-generation college graduate and the new CEO of Exelon. And then head to our database to search data among the nation's largest companies.
Our reporters invite you to reach out if you have a nagging question you'd like to see them answer at jfraser@gannett.com or jguynn@usatoday.com.
Grim milestone
Friday marked a grim milestone of one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Paste BN world affairs correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard has done seven reporting trips to Ukraine since 2014, including four since Russia's invasion.
From Ukraine, he has written about refugees, war crimes, Ukraine's military strategy and the impact of the war on civilians more generally. For this most recent reporting trip, which took place in mid-February and focused on U.S. weapons aid to Ukraine, he spent four days in Kyiv and three days on the front line in the Donbas region. Late last year, he reported on the effect of the war on Russian civilians from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where many Russians have fled.
Discover all of Kim's work and more on our Ukraine news page.
Thank you
Thank you for supporting our journalism with your subscription. Our work wouldn't be possible without you.
Have a wonderful week!
Madalyn Hoerr