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As the first African American woman in U.S. history to be sworn in as Attorney General, Loretta Lynch’s appointment marks an important milestone for minority women in leadership roles.
Currently, black women make up only 1% of U.S. corporate officers, despite the fact that 75% of corporate executives now believe having minorities in senior level positions fosters innovation and better serves a diverse customer base. While the appointment of Lynch as Attorney General took longer than the last seven attorney generals combined, it is a win for women, a win for racial minorities and a win for every citizen who believes that diversity is crucial to effective leadership, sound governance and genuine equality .
Let’s start with gender. A recent report by the Pew Research Center shows that Americans feel more positive about women than men in both politics and management. Given the low popularity ratings of government, this should bring some hope to generating results in the Justice Department.
While the majority of Americans (over 60%) believe gender has no bearing on a person’s ability to be honest and ethical, those that do perceive a difference believe women are better at being honest and ethical then men. In fact, the number of those who feel women have the edge is 10 times greater than those who believe that men do. Similar advantages are perceived when focusing on who’s better at improving U.S. quality of life (five to one in favor of women) and collaborating across multiple interests and working out compromises (four to one in favor or women). Not only that, a June 2011 Harvard Business Review study found that a team's overall intelligence is determined more by the gender of its members than by their individual IQs , and the inclusion of women raises the performance of the team.
Surveys such as these support more optimistic expectations for the leadership of the U.S. Justice Department. Since women’s leadership tends to promote “getting along” versus the male-driven “getting ahead” approach, we ought to see some radical changes in the Justice Department – more cooperation, less gridlock, better outcomes.
Next, diversity-based research has shown that racially diverse leadership is associated with better outcomes. This can be largely attributed to the fact that racially diverse candidates have a heightened sensitivity to integrating the needs of disparate constituents.
Given the current racial unrest in the country –New York, Florida, Missouri and most recently in Baltimore, Maryland – one would hope that having a black Attorney General will help ease the malcontent and restore calm to the wave of violence that has swept across the U.S. in recent months. If President Obama is correct, this isn’t a race issue it is a police brutality issue, and a black female Attorney General will almost certainly bring a new perspective and different approach to addressing this problem.
Lawyer Carol Baldwin Moody, former senior portfolio manager at CalPERS (and also a woman of color), said, “having a black woman be the new Attorney General is like a one-two punch.” Not only will Lynch have the authority to help heal the wounds perpetuated between whites and blacks, but she will be a powerful role model for women of every hue, who aspire to be more powerful catalysts for change in their communities, organizations and in all spheres of government. As HR executive Dr. Solange Charas says, “Given the meager showing of minority women both in government and business, this will be an auspicious opportunity for Loretta to have far-reaching impact, both in her immediate sphere of influence and beyond.”
Certainly the ascent of a black woman to such a senior post will help pave the way for other women to follow. And as they do, the diversity of perspective, style and approach they will bring to the decision making tables will produce better outcomes for the people they lead, widening the door to greater opportunity, prosperity and equality for everyone.
