The Latina Invisibility Cloak - How HBR can help destroy it?
According to the Pew research center, 20% of the US population, or 62.1M people are Latino, so why are we “invisible” when it comes to highlighting success and promoting talent? Part of the answer is social conditioning perpetuated by trusted institutions.
Venus Piñeyro
CEO and Founder
The Latina Invisibility Cloak – How HBR can help destroy it?
According to the Pew research center, 20% of the US population, or 62.1M people are Latino, so why are we “invisible” when it comes to highlighting success and promoting talent? Part of the answer is social conditioning perpetuated by trusted institutions.
Like many of you, I often go to The Harvard Business Review when seeking quality business research and information so imagine my dismay when I clicked on their event titled “Leaders who make a difference” and found zero Latinas in the line-up. Z-E-R-O!
Assuming good intent and set in my quest to be a part of the solution I wrote to HBR. I highlighted the omission and offered to put them in touch with one of the many talented Latina executives in my network. This was their response “ We invited a Latina speaker, but she couldn’t participate due to a scheduling conflict.”Marian Wright Edelman famously said that “you can’t be what you can’t see.” and when institutions are highly regarded as a beacon of excellence and they willingly or by omission participate in spreading the invisibility cloak for Latinas, they make it even harder to change the systemic biases impacting our collective growth.
Inviting “a” Latina is not enough, there are hundreds of us so having an event without finding a suitable presenter is unacceptable. The ALPFA list of 50 powerful Latinas gives you an easy resource to prime the pump of your thought process for the next time. Alternatively, you can reach out to me and I will send you a dozen names of successful, experienced Latinas willing to share their wisdom and insight with your group.
My call to action to you is clear. If you are in a position of privilege and invited to be a part of panels or conferences, make it one of your conditions that there is a Latina on the panel. Build awareness of “cultural scripts” and affiliated discrimination that can disadvantage Latinas in the workplace and be deliberate about taking action to overcome them.
“While you are at it, you will discover that highlighting and amplifying Latina leaders’ voices and promoting them internally will empower your organization to reap the widely recognized benefits of innovation, promoting better conversations, problem-solving, and decision-making thus improving your bottom line. (see Tapia and Lange 2016).
