Happy Women’s History Month to all, although in our eyes we should be celebrating women and all the ways we made ‘his’tory every single day. Still, this month is a great opportunity to remind us all of the amazing things women bring to the table, and that’s if they’re not the ones bringing THE damn table itself.
We love what Women’s History Month stands for, and the place it occupies in the intersectional feminist movement. Using the word intersectional was intentional. We are in a climate where we have to disassociate from the single term of ‘feminism’ with the aim to separate it from ‘white feminism’ by acknowledging women’s different experiences and identities. Why? Because the movement is supposed to include all women, yet Black women find themselves often left out of the conversation and forgotten.
What is Intersectional Feminism and what role does it play in the beauty industry?
At core level, intersectional feminism seeks to achieve gender equity, not equality. According to Social Change UK, although both promote fairness, equality achieves this through treating everyone the same regardless of need, while equity means treating people differently dependent on need. Within the feminist community different demographics of women will have different needs and it’s important to acknowledge that.
The numbers look bleak. For example: Black women in the UK four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth according to the 2019 MBRRACE-UK report. Black women are 4.3 times more likely to die from a COVID-19 related death than White ethnicity males and females. Black and Minority Ethnic women comprise 11.9% of the women’s general population in England and Wales, but 20% of the women’s prison population. You get the idea…
Now in the beauty world, a Nielsen study reported that Blacks spend nearly nine times more than their non-Black counterparts on ethnic hair and beauty products. Yet they are rarely given a space in ownership and leadership in those proportions.
At Revlon USA, only 5% of employees at the director level or above are black. L’Oréal USA, counts 8% who identify as black at the executive level in America. And at Lime Crime*, you will find a grand total of zero black employees at the brand’s corporate headquarters. Although disappointing these figures are, they have been released by the brands voluntarily which is a step towards better transparency.
In addition to their original statement in 2020, Revlon adds: “In 2021 and beyond, we continue to remain focused on diversity including working with our Inclusion & Diversity Council, as well as recruiting and human resources teams to improve representation at every level. We’re committed to our progress,” says Diyanti Camilla, Global PR + Influencer Marketing Manager.
This is reflected across the board for many other major corporations. In fact, as of 2019, only four fortune 500 companies had a black CEO where only one is a woman: Mary Winston at Bed, Bath & Beyond, who left her post at the end of 2019.
Where are the Black female founders at?
The beauty industry has been tackling these racial disparities within its own ecosystem, and prejudice within this industry has been no secret. It’s estimated that the Black British community has a spending power of £300bn, yet only 2% of this is spent within black businesses.
Some of today’s most-booked beauty treatments and biggest cult trends (insert dark fake tan, box braids, hair extensions, nail art and acrylic nails, to name only a few) are steeped in black culture and have been a staple of black beauty for decades. However as representation is sparse and far between, there seems to be a wide disparity on the value the black pound holds in beauty against the people it truly benefits.
The importance of investing in black owned beauty business is clear, even from a purely financial perspective, whether that is for the brand itself or for building leverage within the Black community – but more than that it is essential to have representation in leadership inspire future generations.
Visibility matters, it’s extremely hard to persuade a young person to do something they can’t envision. Many Black women like me didn’t have many role models in positions of power or leadership, so often we deemed those spaces as unachievable.
A study conducted by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in December 2020 revealed that “Women view the workplace as fundamentally less fair and Black women face in greater challenges”. For every 100 men promoted or hired into the manager level, 85 women are promoted or hired and 58 Black women are promoted or hired. Only 56% of Black women feel that they have equal opportunity for growth as their peers (white women and men of all demographics sit both at 69%). A mere 35% of Black Women believe that promotions are based on a fair and objective criteria and 28% believe that the best opportunities go to the most deserving employees (white women and men of all demographies sit at 42% and 48% respectively). The numbers speak for themselves.
Now, that doesn’t quite explain why Black Women are not able to create their own rooms and set up their own tables. So let me break it down: there is a system deterring Black entrepreneurship from thriving, rooted in systemic racism. The Financial Times has reported that in the UK alone, there are no comprehensive figures on lending to black-owned businesses in the UK because “banks do not ask for ethnic background on application forms — but bankers acknowledge there is a problem with funding.”
Warwick Business School released a report in 2013 which found that Black-owned businesses were more likely to be rejected for an overdraft and charged higher interest rates than their white-owned counterparts. Figures also show that Black people are less likely to have access to capital to fund their businesses. When we’re talking Black women, those numbers are even smaller.
Why should we be reppin’ for more Black Female in leadership roles?
The importance of having Black women at the big tables would prevent so many PR nightmares like non inclusive foundation ranges, 50 shades of ashy undertones, and poor quality hair products for afro hair amongst many other common beauty woes. So today, while you celebrate all the women that you admire, and the Beauty founders that have kept us looking beautiful and fresh, please don’t forget to send flowers to the Black Women paving the way in Beauty. One thing that BLM and ‘Black Square Summer’ taught us is that allyship is important. Together we can create a much more inclusive space that is not just for one type of woman, but here for ALL women.
*Lime Crime and L’Oreal have been contacted for comment.
We have put together a list of 19 Black Beauty Brand founders that are pacing the way for women of colour that you need to know about.