Ascent

ELLA L. J. EDMONDSON BELL, Associate Professor of Business Administration

Ascent: Leading Multicultural Women to the Top

Ascent is a not-for-profit organization committed to the professional development and career excellence of multicultural women. Professor Bell is a founding member of this new initiative.

Ascent's research on the issues affecting women of color is ahead of the curve. It informs our educational programs and thought leadership as we develop the means and methods to advance them in corporate America.

We create empowering spaces to learn and grow professionally and personally.

We build alliances among women of different ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds to achieve organizational equity and improved status for all women.

**Ascent gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution of our founding company, Bank One

Our place at the table

Our vision is to have a place at the table—in managerial offices, executive suites, and boardrooms—through education, thought leadership, corporate partnerships, and placement.

We are proud to pursue our objectives in partnership with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Of approximately three million women who hold managerial and administrative positions in the U.S. private sector, only 15 percent are women of color. Latina managers earn 48 cents for every dollar earned by Caucasian male managers; African-American women earn 58 cents. Women of color are consistently overrepresented in entry and middle-management positions. But they hold only 1.3 percent of corporate-officer positions and 3 percent of board directorships in top Fortune-ranked companies. These recent data are provided by Catalyst.

Invisible at the crossroads of race and gender

While women of all races work at a significant disadvantage to men, the intersection of race and gender has created a virtually invisible class. Women of color remain culturally distant and nearly unknown to the leadership cadre of American business, both male and female.