SOCIAL TOPICS (Archive): WORKPLACE

Published, July 1994

       Ann Taylor, a research analyst in our social research group, will soon testify before the Glass Ceiling Commission at a hearing in New York City where she will urge better public disclosure of information about equal opportunity employment practices. The Glass Ceiling Commission was created as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to study barriers to advancement for minorities and women. The commission will report on its findings and offer recommendations to the President and Congress. Excerpts from Ann’s testimony are reprinted here.

       In 30 years, little progress has been made in correcting the conditions of high unemployment and job segregation among nonwhites and women, which originally motivated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Government agencies, like the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), are ill equipped to address the magnitude of the problem. On average the OFCCP annually conducts glass-ceiling audits at only 5,000 of the 94,000 work sites for which it is responsible.

       As the former National Administrator of the NAACP Economic Development Program [Operation Fair Share], I worked closely with a number of America’s leading corporations in the pursuit of economic justice. These corporations have shared information, as “Fair Share” signatories, about their equal employment opportunity policies, programs, goals and objectives. This information provided for rich dialogue that was, more often than not, viewed as a constructive vehicle for future planning and development efforts in addressing corporate glass ceiling issues.

       Concerned about EEO issues, United States Trust Company has added its voice to the dialogue with companies, but has been frustrated by the lack of publicly available data and performance measures. Committed to issues of workplace equality, our social investors have begun to direct their economic capital toward corporations that share the same commitment to economic justice. USTC has dedicated substantial resources to prying loose EEO data through increased dialogue, proxy voting, and shareholder resolutions which promote public corporate accountability.

       Drawing on our collective experiences with environmental public disclosure campaigns and mandated disclosure of bank lending data, our testimony makes the following recommendations:

       1) Regularly (every 3 to 5 years) audit the EEO performance of government contractors and provide for electronic release of the findings;

       2) Honor all Freedom of Information Act requests for all EEO reports, or make the government’s EEO computer database publicly available;

       3) Publicly release the outcome of all EEO-related discrimination suits;

       4) Expand the scope of Glass Ceiling audits to include library searches of less traditional sources and seek input from women and minority trade associations and community groups;

       5) Track the length of time key corporate positions are held open to ensure efforts were made to develop a diverse applicant pool;

       6) Monitor the highest compensated employees by gender and race;

       7) Enforcement efforts should consider attaching a bidding penalty to those contractors that receive minor EEO violations and denying contracts to companies that have major violations.

       While it is impossible to legislate diversity, it is unlikely that discriminatory practices will survive full public disclosure. Public disclosure has been and continues to be a contentious component of legislated change. However, it also seems to be the most effective. Legislation on environmental and bank lending issues has included public disclosure components that are critical mechanisms for change. Any true effort to break the corporate glass ceiling must include public disclosure.