institutions, including organizations in specific fields,
minority caucuses within professional organizations, and black
colleges and universities. We also seek the help of individuals who
have wide contacts in minority and other underrepresented
communities, including educators, attorneys, and public figures. We
rely on our own staff and special recruiting efforts to assist in
finding a diverse group of candidates. When a promising candidate
might become more competitive by the acquisition of a specific
skill or experience, we try to help. We review the various units
within the Foundation each year to identify opportunities to
further diversify and discuss our affirmative action profile with
our Board.
The
Foundation's record in these matters is summarized in the following
table:
Ford
Foundation Personnel by Race and Gender
|
Jan. 1973 |
Jan. 1979 |
Jan. 1986 |
|
—Percent
Minority— |
| Trustees |
6.3 |
20.0 |
23.5 |
| Professional Staff |
6.6 |
8.3 |
14.0 |
| Support Staff |
23.1 |
28.1 |
37.8 |
|
—Percent
Women— |
| Trustees |
12.5 |
15.0 |
17.6 |
| Professional Staff |
22.9 |
32.6 |
53.2 |
| Support Staff |
89.1 |
86.7 |
82.0 |
At both
trustee and staff levels, the representation of minorities and
women has steadily improved. We are cheered by this progress though
not complacent. We regard the process as an ongoing one, requiring
long-term attention and continual reexamination of practices and
experience. As with our grantees, we believe that numbers are not
the sole measure of improvement. Foundations, like other
organizations, need to consider the equally important qualitative
aspects of progress, namely, the institutional culture: working
relationships, personal interactions, and an atmosphere open to the
discussion of sensitive issues. It is important to assure that
minorities and women are full participants on the job, both in the
actuality and the perception.
The benefits
of affirmative action and related efforts vastly exceed whatever
difficulties and stresses they entail. In all their forms, they
serve the most profound goal of democratic societies. The nation's
social compact, born 200 years ago, represented a magnificent but
incomplete statement of that goal. Each era saw further advances,
along with occasional setbacks. In our own time, we have brought
about the reformation of the most blatant aspects of a
discriminatory society. Now we must move against the subtler and
more intractable forms of de facto institutional discrimination.
Affirmative action policies