I wish the news outlets would stop reporting this like it’s some kind of malevolent plot.
Here’s the deal, to make it to senior management of any company requires a lifetime of experience. That means that the current old white executives were born in the 50s and 60s. Look at the demographics of those people that spent a lifetime in industry with no break for childcare and got higher education from that generation.
Overwhelmingly white male. That’s the selection pool they have available to do those jobs.
Now look at the statistics for the current generation; those born after 1990. White males are not the largest portion of college grads and white women and other minority groups outnumber them. Give it 30 years as that generation matures and congress and industry will be run by white women and “minorities”.
Those jobs which require years of experience and to a certain degree are separated by ageism will naturally be the last to adjust.
However, no one wants to admit this though. Everyone wants us to think there is some big conspiracy holding back non white male groups.
Same thing regarding the often quoted “pay gap”. When you normalize for education and years of experience, women actually earn more than men by a slight amount. However, gathering that data to get an accurate study is hard which is why most studies omit it and only compare sex and pay which is very misleading. Of course someone who didn’t take 8 years off to be a stay at home Mom will command a higher salary than someone who did take an employment break. And that happens enough that it has a very big impact on the outcome of the study