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Beth Chandler, YW Boston’s President and CEO, joined NECN’s Brian Burnell alongside Eos Foundation President Andrea Silbert to discuss the power gap among top earners at elite universities and the NCAA. As research has shown, while women make up the majority of college students, masters degree holders, and Ph.D. holders, they are only 24% of the top earners at these institutions. Women of color are especially underrepresented, making up only 2.5% of top earners. They also spoke about the disparities in the NCAA March Madness tournament, during which women’s basketball players were denied many of the resources that the men’s players received. 

As Beth pointed out, “people are not necessarily intentionally not hiring women of color. What happens is we hire people we know. We refer people we know. Our groups look like we do. So if the majority of your managers and senior leaders are White and White men, the people they know and who they are going to recommend are White men. That is why there has to be intentionality around people reaching out and getting to know and connecting with other people. If we don’t expand our networks, then they are going to look like us…It is going to perpetuate itself.” She also spoke about how this can affect the internal promotions process.

Beth spoke about Parity on Board, a YW Boston led coalition, which seeks to increase gender and racial representation on public boards and commissions. As she stated, we must strive to ensure that those in leadership in Massachusetts are representative of the Commonwealth’s demographics.

Watch the conversation here:

Find the segment on NECN’s website here.

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About YW Boston 

As the first YWCA in the nation, YW Boston has been at the forefront of advancing equity for over 150 years. Through our DE&I services—InclusionBoston and LeadBoston—as well as our advocacy work and F.Y.R.E. Initiative, we help individuals and organizations change policies, practices, attitudes, and behaviors with a goal of creating more inclusive environments where women, people of color, and especially women of color can succeed. 

As part of that work, we are helping organizations prioritize Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and become socially connected while staying physically distant. During this time, YW Boston is providing organizations with digital workshops and resources to help them better understand the challenges faced by their employees. For more information, please contact Sheera Bornstein at sheera@ywboston.org.