Ashima Patel, senior vice president at global retailer Shoppers Market has made progress but needs to do more, especially regarding the decreasing representation of women of color in the company.
Shoppers Market was facing a challenge that most of corporate America was grappling with: a lack of improvement in representation for women of color. Though women of color represented about one in four U.S. employees at Shoppers Market in mid-year 2021, they made up just 4.3% of people at the officer level—people with president or vice president in their titles. Despite an increase in hiring, the representation of women of color at Shoppers Market had declined by 8% overall, and by 33% in leadership positions, over the last five years.
Students will explore the challenges facing women of color in the workplace and develop a multi-disciplinary, integrated strategy to address the reasons underlying their small representation in leadership.