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Do Mentors Hold the Corporate Keys for Latinas?
In reading through studies and articles as preparation for this article, I came across a curious phrase: “…the best way to get a mentor is to say, I can help you.” (The Truth About Mentoring, Especially Between Races; Jimmy Myers http://www.umich.edu/~hraa/bfdiversity/0902.html). The author suggests, as do most other investigators of minority advancement, that mentors are crucial, and that a relationship with a professional muse is best begun early on, so difficult will it prove for people of color to achieve their desired goals in the mainstream of U.S. business. I had to reread the phrase, though, sure that it contained a typo, that spell-check had not recognized the word “mentee” and corrected it to read “mentor” (“….the best way to get a mentee is to say, I can help you,” is how it seemed the line should be read). The author must have been suggesting that, with all the minority talent out there, the rising educated population of Latino/as, the bounding purchasing power for both goods and services of the Hispanic market, firms would be waiting with open arms for qualified minority applicants. But, then, I realized the mistake was mine, and that my assumptions about the success of private sector inclusionism had been too rosy. Indeed, moving up in the corporate world, whether for minorities or women--with Hispanic women arguably having to assume the most difficult challenge of all—most assuredly depends on your being able to convince your employer, your industry, that you are there for them, that your talents, your experience, your devotion and at times your very identity, are the secret and unique ingredients in the recipe for a healthy and growing business despite your otherwise position off the radar of the corporate mainstream. Put more succinctly: “Diversity efforts are most successful when they benefit a company's bottom line.” (CareerJournal.com: Five Common Denominators of Effective Diversity Programs; by Lauren Baier Kim)
Hispanics, whether male or female, while they make up 10% of the work force in the U.S., hold only 4.5% of the executive positions in the private sector. Of that paltry 4.5%, 6% are women. (Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, 2001) The women’s advocacy organization Catalyst conducted a study of minority women—Asian American, African American, Latinas--in corporate life in 1999. They found that women of color account for only 1.3% of the corporate officers of 400 of the Fortune 500 companies. Forty seven percent of the women they queried cited the lack of an influential mentor as the number one barrier to their advancement. Catalyst also reported that the lower their position in management, the less likely the women were to have a mentor to help them on their way up. (Catalyst, Women of Color in Corporate Management: Opportunities and Barriers, 1999) And Anna Duran of the consulting firm the Duran Group tops it off with, “The impact of not having mentors is felt greatest by Latinas.” (The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias; Barrons Educational Series: 2005) Donna Maria Blancero, board member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) and an expert on the subject, reports that while having a mentor did enable Latinas to do somewhat better in their careers, the true benefit came when the mentor was Anglo. “Those with Latino mentors earned less salary, were less satisfied and were more likely to leave the organization than those with a white mentor,” she notes. (Hispanics in Corporate America, Donna Maria Blancero, PhD. and Robert G. DelCampo; Hispanic MBA Magazine; Dec., 2004) Her logical conclusion is that Latino mentors do not have enough influence at their firms to be able to advance the interests of their protégés. Thus, it is universally accepted that the “best” mentors, those who most successfully facilitate career advancement on the part of their “mentee”, have been white males, if for the simple reason that they are already on top, they know the ins and outs of their corporation and their industry, and, as part of the “boys’ club”, they know and hobnob with everyone there is to know; and they do favors in exchange for having favors done for them. Blancero summed it up when we spoke: “Everyone should look for the best available person; it must be someone in power, which, in most cases, still, is a white male.’ But Blancero stresses that the pairing must “click,” must feel relaxed and open, and here many Latinas feel culturally alien and at a loss having an Anglo mentor; some tend to shy away. Many Anglos, too, might feel uncomfortable in these pairings where the cultural gap may be widest: Most Latinas can’t sit for hours and talk about football, nor are two-martini luncheons appropriate, nor, for the most part, will they belong to the same country club. Neither will they enjoy the same music, the same entertainment, and send their kids to the same schools as white males (and females). The gender discomfort between mentor and protégé of two different sexes becomes anomy if sitting opposite each other at a promised power lunch happen to be the patrician scion of a silk stocking brokerage house and a Chicana, daughter of immigrants, raised in South Texas. In addition, Anglo males—maybe African American manager-mentors as well—may well misinterpret the fierce loyalty to extended family that many Latinas bring with them, values that may, in the end, enhance their job performance by proving their ability to commit and be loyal to a group or obligation, but be mistrusted by the unknowing as potential ambivalence to their job. Dr. Blancero makes the distinction, especially relevant to Latinas, between “work-family facilitation”—aspects of your background that encourage positive performance--and “work-family conflict.” “You need to use work-family facilitation to market your potential skills on the job,” she stresses. “Work-family conflict is what could keep you back.” Dr. Duran makes a clear point of supporting Latinas, especially, as women workers who can “blend their work life with their home life” while working just as hard and long hours as men. Crucial to understanding the importance of mentoring, says Blancero, is the now-common acceptance that there are two distinct mentors: the mentor with the explicit task of fostering professional development—“and this is where the white male would most always come in”—and the psycho-social mentor—the role model, “the sounding board, the person to go to for moral support.” This person, for a Hispanic woman, could easily be another Latina. Blancero avers that the two are equally important and suggests Latinas seek out both.
A recent Pew Center study reports, as do Blancero with Robert Del Campo (op. cit. Blancero and DelCampo) that a third of Hispanics perceive themselves discriminated against in an Anglo-defined workplace. Often, if you perceive discrimination, you are less assertive and more passive about your lack of advancement; some Latinas may inadvertently be contributing to their own as well as cohort stagnation by resigning themselves to their state or resigning from corporate life. But Duran sees the problem of discrimination in a different light. Her research has shown that how discriminatory experiences were dealt with “determined the level of advancement. If they reframed the experience as an opportunity for learning and made a plan on how to move on, they were more successful,” she reports. But, if they were involved in “blaming, suing, and the like, there was a different sense of their efficacy in their work environment.” Duran also believes that too much emphasis is placed on defining success as upward movement. The ladder is no longer the defining yardstick, so to speak. “Organizations are downsizing; there are fewer jobs at the top, so people are moving more laterally,” she says, suggesting that “moving up” now includes moving sideways either within the organization or by joining a new firm. Taking on a special assignment, for example, might be a risky move--piloting a new business plan for the organization, for example—but if done well, is sure to be given special notice, while taking a similar position in a different firm as new blood also gives the employee greater chances of being noticed. Blancero agrees, but she also cautions against too much lateral movement and not enough push upwards: “If they’re getting new skills, and compensation, it’s very positive. But too much moving laterally instead of moving up may mean just frustration and not opportunity.” It’s clear that change won't magically materialize. It’s going to take awareness and advocacy and aggressive action. Bottom line, minorities and Latinas in particular, have got to go to the jugular of the status quo, and that’s revenue. Luke Visconti of Diversity Inc. told Hispanic Business, “Minorities are the growth segment of our economy, and companies don’t quite recognize it yet. If they did, you’d see this issue approached with all sorts of programs and seriousness.” Donna Blancero observes that corporations may have no choice but to recognize this. She points out that with 40% of the Hispanic population under 21, and vast numbers of baby boomers retiring in the next few years, Hispanics are poised to move in and get comfy in those linebacker-sized, plushy leather swivel chairs. Good mentoring will make the transition that much smoother.
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Carol
Amoruso has had several vocational callings over the years. She's
taught young children, run volunteer programs for seniors, had a
catering business, designed clothes. Ultimately, she found that
nothing engaged and challenged her the way writing has. She's
written every day since childhood, professionally since 1990. Her
involvement in the arts, society and politics of Africa, the
Caribbean, and the Latin World have been the most inspiring and her
work concentrates on those areas. She travels extensively but lives
in New York City.