On June 13 Microsoft announced a $26.2 billion deal to acquire professional social platform LinkedIn. Later that same day a colleague and I discussed LinkedIn’s attempt at connecting the world’s professionals, specifically Black millennial women.
To this day black millennial women report experiencing discrimination based on race and gender at considerably higher rates than most millennial women. The gender wage gap is also even wider for Black women, who on average make 20 cents less than a White woman.
It’s also been reported by Fortune that people who fall into ethnic groups likely to experience negative biases. They have also found that downplaying their association can help them sidestep discrimination, a behavior known as “covering“.
I’ve managed my professional LinkedIn account for 8 years and like me, other black professionals use LinkedIn at nearly the same rate as White professionals.
LinkedIn adopted a new strategy
Understanding the millennial generation is the demographic with the largest US workforce, LinkedIn turned its attention to undergraduate students.
Some professional black millennial women may argue their profile photo isn’t the sole factor discouraging them from completing a LinkedIn profile. They also feel inferior to other millennial women on LinkedIn, believing they have less professional experience in unchallenging roles. They shouldn’t believe this inaccurate notion.
Black millennial women hold high labor force participation rates compared to other women and last year. Black women held approximately the same percentage of sales and office positions as white women.
I’ll never argue employment discrimination doesn’t exist, however masking yourself won’t stop it from happening. LinkedIn is an outstanding tool for personal branding, career strategy, and networking.
As of today’s most engaged group of professionals, I encourage black millennial women to strengthen their LinkedIn profiles with professional photos. Embrace, showcase, and leverage your diversity via the professional social platform. Merge it with your formal education and enlightened organizations will cherish you because they understand diversity breeds innovation.
Read more on why today’s most engaging professionals are hiding from LinkedIn.
