Environmental organizations have made significant progress on gender diversity in their ranks, but fall far short on racial diversity, a new study has found.
Green 2.0, a diversity advocacy group, commissioned the report that examined three types of institutions: 191 conservation and preservation organizations, 74 government environmental agencies and 28 environmental grant-making foundations.
The report found that the percentage of women in leadership positions and on the staff of environmental groups had increased over time, though white women were the chief beneficiaries of these gains.
Women dominated executive director's positions in environmental grant-making foundations, and they had the greatest likelihood of becoming chair of the board in these foundations.
However, men were still more likely than women to occupy the most powerful positions in environmental organizations, the report found.
More than 70% of the presidents and chairs of the board of conservation/preservation organizations studied were male, and at the largest groups, the proportion rose to 90%.
Men dominated the executive director positions in government environmental agencies, and were far more likely than women to be on the staff of government environmental agencies.
They also occupied the majority of the top leadership positions in environmental grant-making organizations.
Underrepresented
The report called the current state of racial diversity in environmental organizations "troubling," and said it lagged far behind gender diversity.
Despite the growth in the ethnic minority population in the U.S. — currently 38% — the percentage of minorities on the boards or general staff of environmental organizations did not exceed 16% in the three types of institutions studied.
Once hired in environmental organizations, the report said, ethnic minorities were concentrated in the lower ranks. As a result, they occupied less than 12% of the leadership positions in the groups studied.
Hiring practices militate against improvement.
