General Mills has come up a big winner after turning to its African-American employees for product input, according to a November 14, 2006 report in the Wall Street Journal.  Based on the employees’ advice the company redesigned its cornbread and muffin mix, adding a picture of restaurant-owner B. Smith. Sales have risen 22.3 percent in the year ending September 2006, according to the Journal article.

Polling of women at Working Mother Media’s 2006 Best Companies for Women of Color Conference showed “just how difficult it is to be authentic at work,” according to the magazine’s December issue. Sixty-four percent of multiracial women, 40 percent of Native American women, 36 percent of Asian and African-American women, and 29 percent of Latinas in the audience “felt that they have separate identities at home and at work.” More than 800 women “and a few brave men” attended the two-day event, which was themed “Authenticity: Bringing Your Whole Self to Work.” Working Mother Media CEO Carol Evans and Deborah Elam, vice president and chief diversity officer of General Electric, kicked off the event by “literally kicking off their shoes” and leading participants in a dance designed to help attendees “shed their corporate armor.” Evans said the theme of authenticity “was the most difficult topic” addressed in previous conferences. “A lot of conversation was about, ‘Who are you when you’re trusted and who are you when you’re not trusted? Who are you when you’re just being your authentic self?’ So this idea—bringing you whole selves to work--bubbled up.” The magazine reported that attendees “confronted their concern what it means to bring their whole selves to the workplace [and] also learned some surprising facts about how hiding their cultural identity, interests and personalities may be more harmful than helpful.” Solutions discussed for building a workplace that encourages full participation of multicultural women included: Tying diversity progress to manager’s compensation and appraisals; building retention metrics into performance systems; and cross-cultural mentoring.

The nation mourned the passing of former President Gerald Ford, a consistent supporter of diversity during his long life. Ford signed the law admitting women to the nation’s military academies and was a supporter of gay rights and affirmative action. In a 1999 op-ed article in The New York Times, Ford wrote about his experiences with prejudice as a student at Michigan State: “So long as books are kept open, we tell ourselves, minds can never be closed, But doors, too, must be kept open. Tolerance, breadth of mind and appreciation for the world beyond our neighborhoods: these can be learned on the football field and in the science lab as well as in the lecture hall. But only if students are exposed to America in all her variety."

U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi has become the most powerful women in United States history. Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency, took the reins as House Speaker last week, promising to push through a “100 hour” agenda that includes tighter ethics rules, an increased minimum wage, negotiated Medicare drug prices, lower interest rates on student loans, and increased funding for 9/11 Commission recommendations and embryonic stem- cell research. “We’ve waited over 200 years for this time,” Pelosi told five hundred women at a January 3 rally. “America’s working women, women working at home, whatever they choose to do, they have a friend in the Capitol of the United States.”

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