Women may be scare in senior management, but a study reported by the Harvard Business Review has found another, less obvious finding--women who do make it to the top do it faster than men. Researchers from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and Loyola University analyzed data on nearly 10,000 Fortune 1,000 executives. “Though nearly half of Fortune 1,000 firms still have no female executive officers, those that do seem to be aggressively hiring and promoting them into the top ranks,” HBR reported. A much larger percentage of Fortune 1,000 women have made it to executive officer positions in their 30s, 40s, and 50s than have men their age. What’s more, these women achieved their executive positions at a younger average age than the men did (46.7 years versus 51.1) and have less tenure on average than men in their current positions (2.6 years versus 3.5 years).

Women consumers prefer companies that buy from women-owned businesses, according to a survey of 1,200 women sponsored by Women's Business Enterprise National Council, a top certifier of women-owned businesses selling to corporations and government organizations. The survey of women consumers focused on women 35 to 55 and reported that nearly 80 percent of women consumers would try a company's product or service if they knew a company used women-owned businesses as vendors. According to Diversity Newswire, another 80 percent said awareness of a company's practice of buying from women's businesses would moderately or significantly increase their brand loyalty. "Buying from women-owned business is an instant competitive advantage for corporations that have invested in supply chain diversity," said Linda Denny, interim president of WBENC.

Hispanics held just 3.1 percent of all Fortune 500 board seats in 2006, according to the a new study by the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, reported by Diversity Newswire. On a positive note, the study found a 26 percent rise in the number of Hispanics sitting on Fortune 500 boards since 2003. Almost 10 percent of Fortune 500 boards have consistent Hispanic representation for at least a decade, but Hispanic women held just 0.8 percent of all Fortune 500 seats in 2006. The study reported that the number of Hispanics serving as board chairs, presidents and/or CEOs in the Fortune 1,000 has increased from 16 to 22. Just two companies in the Fortune 500 had three or more Hispanic board members and only one percent of executive officer positions were held by Hispanics. Hispanics comprise 14 percent of the nation’s population and one out of every eight employees in the labor force.

Starbucks has settled a disability discrimination case with a bipolar “barista,” DiversityInc reports. The chain will pay the employee $75,000, donate $10,000 to the Disability Rights Legal Center, train its managers and supervisors about disability discrimination and inform the EEOC about disability complaints it receives in the next 12 months. The employee alleged that new management refused to provide her with extra accommodations and then fired her “because she was not ‘Starbucks material.”"

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