Latinas are more ambitious than white women but remain the least represented group in C-suites

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- C-suite challenges. Latinas are the least represented group in corporate America with no hope of catching up without serious changes from employers and managers, according to a new report by Sheryl Sandberg's LeanIn.org.

Only 1% of C-suite executives are Latinas. That problem at the top of the corporate ladder starts at the bottom. Only 5% of entry-level employees are Latina compared to their 9% representation in the U.S. population. Between entry level and the C-suite, Latinas experience a dropoff in representation of 78%—the largest of any group. The report analyzes Lean In’s annual Women in the Workplace studies, mainly relying on data from 2019 to 2023.

At every “broken rung," as Lean In calls it, Latinas face challenges. Some of that comes down to their on-the-ground experiences with their managers:

— 39% of Latinas say their manager shows interest in their career advancement, compared to 46% of white women.

— 79% of Latinas say their manager trusts them to get their work done without micromanaging, compared to 85% of white women.

— 47% of Latinas say their manager evaluates them based on results, not when or how they do their work; for white women, that number is much higher at 57%.

— 47% of Latinas say their manager ensures they get credit for their work, compared to 53% of white women.

These experiences contrast how Latinas say they feel about their own careers. Forty-four percent say career advancement has become more important to them over the past two years compared to 32% of white women. Eighty-seven percent of Latinas are interested in being promoted, compared to 81% of women overall.

These findings are a stark reminder of how far corporate America has to go to ensure gender and racial equity—and to take full advantage of the full talent pool. We’ve always known about the gender wage gap; Latinas face the widest wage gap of any group. But clearly, there’s more to the story than the often-cited explanation that Latinas work lower-income jobs. And these findings are a reminder that fixing such problems will rely on organization-wide strategies and addressing individual relationships and unconscious bias.

This report follows another that Lean In published in 2020 on the state of Black women in corporate America; that year, Black women held 1.4% of C-suite positions (compared to Latinas' 1% in this report). “We hope our findings serve as a wake-up call for companies to double down on advancing Latinas, and we hope Latinas—who are too-often overlooked—feel validated,” Lean In CEO Rachel Thomas told me.

The report already rings true with at least one leader at the top of corporate America. Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar, the only Latina CEO in the Fortune 500, said in a statement that the findings “resonate with [her].”

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com