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Workforce | November/December 2019 | By Andie Burjek, Grey Litaker
Getting Schooled on Diversity
The lack of diversity in leadership positions does not coincide with the pool of MBA graduates. What can organizations do to address this concerning representation gap?
As the 21st century dawned, enrollment in university MBA programs was a virtual rainbow of diversity. In the early 2000s, MBA graduates were comprised of 36.2 percent people of color and 40.7 percent of grads were women, while 39.1 percent were white males.
At about the same time, chief executive roles were predominately occupied by males, most of whom were white. More than 89 percent of white men and women occupied the chief executive’s chair as of 2005, with 76 percent of those executives being male.