While white women are making slow but steady progress rising the retail ranks, multicultural women are more likely to find their careers stalling out, according to a new report released by the Network of Executive Women (NEW).

The report, Tapestry: Leveraging the Rich Diversity of Women in Retail and Consumer Goods, co-authored by Ancella Livers, senior faculty at The Center for Creative Leadership, and Trudy Bourgeois, CEO of The Center for Workforce Excellence, was based on interviews with industry leaders, third-party research and a survey of nearly 2,000 NEW members and supporters of all backgrounds conducted earlier this year.

It revealed that retail and consumer goods brands are frequently overlooking the value and contributions of multicultural women. In fact, more than 56 percent of multicultural women surveyed by NEW agreed that “multicultural women face more bias than white women,” compared to 28 percent of white women who felt the same.

“Multicultural women have different workplace experiences and career challenges related to their gender, race and ethnicity — and perceive the workplace differently than white men and white women,” said Livers in a press release on the report. “Multicultural women are much more likely to perceive the dual impact of gender and race/ethnicity on career advancement than white women, who are more likely to perceive only the impact of gender.”

Here are some more interesting findings from the report:

  • 64 percent of white women are satisfied with their workplace environment, compared to 55 percent of multicultural women who said the same;
  • 38 percent of multicultural women feel stuck in their job, compared to 30 percent of white women who feel likewise; and
  • the No. 1 reason cited for why there aren’t more multicultural women leaders in my industry was “corporate culture and leadership is not diverse” (32 percent), followed by not enough qualified candidates (18 percent), and lack of mentors or sponsors (15 percent).

The report from NEW identified several steps companies can take to champion and leverage cultural fluency. They include the following:

1. Appoint and develop ambassadors of change. C-suite leaders must expect executives in
the succession planning process to be culturally competent. After the CEO and C-suite members are on board with creating a more equitable culture for multicultural women, they can authorize the creation of — and skill-development programs for — ambassadors of change. The job of these early adopters is to lead by example and help the organization and other leaders become more culturally aware.

2. Reward mentoring and sponsorship. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of mentoring and sponsorship, women, especially multicultural women, lack both. Organizations must intentionally link sponsors to high-potential multicultural women who can advance one or two levels higher than their current positions.

3. Embrace different leadership styles. Women’s world views and life experiences produce a gender-specific way of engaging others. In their authentic space, multicultural women lead differently than white male leaders. The business world continues to promote and reward a leadership style created by white men. Without a willingness to embrace different leadership styles, companies will continue to prevent multicultural women from offering their best leadership traits and abilities.

4. Develop the pipeline. Constantly be searching for and developing the next generation of multicultural women in leadership positions. This is done through private coaching, executive sponsorship and career workshops to propel participants to the next level.

5. Create opportunities for multicultural women to be heard and recognized. Women’s employee resource groups help women advance their careers and create opportunities for women to understand each other’s journey and support each other. Moreover, businesses that support employee resource groups specifically for women of color have made great strides in the development and advancement of multicultural women leaders.

6. Measure multicultural performance. Surveys, mentoring and sponsorship will help your management team understand the experiences of multicultural women. Succession planning should be tracked and scored to promote transparency and diversity of candidates. Applying a high level of discipline and rigor to the measurement process will ensure that leaders focus on the abilities, talents and potential of every viable candidate for advancement.