Latina Leadership in the United States — A Crisis of Representation

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Short Description

Latina women are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership roles in the United States. This roundtable will examine the state of Latina leadership in the U.S. and discuss whether culturally-tailored leadership programs are a viable solution to the obstacles Latinas face in obtaining positions of leadership.

Detailed Abstract

There is a clear crisis of leadership representation for Latinas in the United States. Latina women face discrimination as potential leaders for their gender, ethnicity and identification as members of the Latino community. At the present time, the Latino population is growing faster than their representation in positions of power. Currently, one in every five girls and women in the United States are Latinas and by 2060, the number of Latinas will be one in every three females. Even though Latina women represent a significant portion of the United States population and workforce, they have not achieved equity in leadership, education, health, political influence, and wages. In fact, Latinas earn 78 cents for every dollar a white woman earns and 54 cents for every dollar a white male earns. One in four Latinas live below poverty line and over one in two live in near-poverty.
The statistics are stark and Latina women have a lot of catching up to do. In today’s turbulent, political climate, how do we even begin to address this? Latinas face “triple oppression” from racism, sexism and cultural notions that encourage passivity, fatalism and being submissive. Current research does not adequately address the lack of Latina leadership across all industries and sectors of United States society. A more rigorous look at solutions for addressing the gap in Latinas leadership is warranted. It is important to understand the potential of Latina leadership, the obstacles Latinas face in obtaining positions of leadership and how to address this situation given the number of Latinas in the United States workforce. This presentation will provide a detailed breakdown of picture and analysis of Latina leadership disparities in the United States and offer insights into the impact of culturally tailored Latina leadership programs.
The research presented will highlight snapshots of Latina participants from the Spring 2017 Latina Success Leadership Programs. The Latina Success Leadership Program is a program offered by MANA de San Diego and the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego County, California, designed and coordinated entirely for Latinas by Latinas. MANA de San Diego is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower Latinas through education, leadership development, community service and advocacy and the Center for Creative Leadership is also a non-profit whose mission is to advance the understanding, practice and development of leadership. This non-profit collaboration provided a perfect marriage to address an underserved regional border population, namely Latina professionals. Researchers since 1998 have specified that minority women, including African-Americans and Latinas “need workshops that will address concerns related to racism and the paucity of role models who are sensitive to their issues”. Regardless of the content within the workshops, a derivative benefit is the ability for a group of like females to be gathered together as part of an in group with facilitators that can be seen as role models. The peer networking, shared experience and bonding that occurs becomes as important as the content presented. The interviews taken from a 2015 cohort of 68 participants and a 2017 cohort of 45 participants will highlight these benefits of culturally tailored leadership programs for Latinas.

Participants

• Cristina Padilla, University of San Diego

• Briseida Elenes, University of San Diego