NEWS AND INSIGHT NEWS & INSIGHT
FURTHERING INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP WHILE DISMANTLING DISCRIMINATION
SCHOOL: Fundação Getulio Vargas COUNTRY: Brazil
While Brazil has witnessed some progress in terms of black women’s representation in leadership positions, they still face invisibility and racism, according to a study published in the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) journal, GV-Executive . “Brazil has the second-largest black population in the world (after Nigeria) and black women represent 27.8 per cent of the population, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica Instituto, IBGE). Having representatives of this group among leaders and on boards of directors broadens the market vision of brands and highlights a potential target audience that has not yet been properly served,” argues the study’s author, Dilma Campos, who is CEO and founding partner of Outra Praia and an MBA alumna of FGV. Recent demands for affirmative policies have resulted in positive change, says Campos, but the IBGE’s figures on diversity show just how far there is to go. Men and women defined as black represent 56.1 per cent of the Brazilian population, yet hold only 4.7 per cent of leadership positions at the country’s 500 largest companies. In addition, women of any ethnic background held just 13 per cent of CEO positions in 2019, according to Campos.
The study takes the results of a survey of 60 female executives defined as black to make recommendations for accelerating progress and tackling continuing discrimination. Those surveyed had all undergone a leadership training programme to prepare them to serve on corporate boards of directors. Noting that the existing representation of black female leaders is often limited to careers relating to diversity and sustainability, one point highlighted by the study is the need to widen this demographic’s inclusion in c-suite roles. Challenges picked up on echo those seen in other DEI dimensions and offer areas in which business schools can make a positive impact, such as the need to prepare more young black women for leadership positions and highlight senior black women as role models. However, the study concludes that the greatest challenge is to change deep-rooted beliefs in Brazilian society and deconstruct patterns that are part of its collective unconscious and that therefore remain predominant in organisational cultures. TBD
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Ambition | SEPTEMBER 2023 | 13
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