Reni Eddo-Lodge, in her article You’re talked to as if you are a junior (27 September), refers to Policy Exchange’s report Bittersweet Success?. She says the report concluded that non-white ethnic minorities in highly skilled, middle-class, well-paid professions are concentrated at the bottom level of senior management roles and that it evidenced “drastic racial disparities”. Our report actually found that in professions such as law, medicine, and the civil service, minorities clustered towards the bottom, but that the shares at the top were broadly in line with the entry cohorts of the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was only at the very top of the top of the professions – FTSE 100 boards, NHS trusts, the most senior civil servants – that we found a shortfall of ethnic minority individuals. The report also found that just 12% of minorities believed themselves to have been discriminated against in promotion, and that ethnic Chinese and Indians (groups with the greatest educational attainment and thus the most likely candidates for professional advancement) were less likely to apply for it. Such factors need to be considered in any discussion of glass ceilings for ethnic minorities. There are real issues with progression and discrimination but these need to be properly quantified and benchmarked.
Dr Richard Norrie
Research fellow, Demography, Immigration & Integration, Policy Exchange
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