Public figures are weighing in with their dissatisfaction: Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said, “I think [Obama] can do better;” and Congressman Charlie Rangel said the lack of diversity on Obama’s team was “embarrassing as hell. … He’s had four years to work the bench, to work the second team, so that in the second term, these people should be just as experienced as any other American.” Watch the video interview with Rangel.

Is There Really a Lack of Diversity?

The three people the President has nominated so far—John Kerry as Secretary of State, Jack Lew as Secretary of Treasury and Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense—are all white men. With two appointments still in the works, the 16-member Cabinet will be at least 69 percent white and at least 69 percent male. (Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, a Latina, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, a Latino, have announced their resignations, but replacements have not been nominated.)

“I’m very proud that in the first four years we had as diverse, if not more diverse, a White House and a cabinet than any in history,” Obama says. “And I intend to continue that.” A diverse team, he added, “helps to create more effective policy-making and better decision-making for me because it brings different perspectives to the table.”

“Women are well-represented in the president’s senior staff here,” Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary, adds. “Two of the three deputy chiefs of staff are women. The White House counsel is a woman. A woman runs Homeland Security for this country, Secretary [Janet] Napolitano. … The Cabinet secretary in charge of the most important piece of domestic-policy legislation in a generation is a woman, [Secretary of Health and Human Services] Kathleen Sebelius.”

According to White House personnel data compiled by The New York Times, the Obama Administration has improved the number of women appointees by 10 percent to 43 percent, up from 33 percent in George W. Bush’s administration and about the same ratio as Bill Clinton’s (41 percent).

But with a campaign strongly based on a message of change—and diversity—Obama’s seemingly not happy with a meager 10 percent bump either. “Word from the White House is that the President himself is irritated, and demanding answers about the faces his staff is pushing forward. Unfortunately, he has only a bunch of white guys to offer an explanation of why the picture looks like a bunch of white guys,” writes New York Times Op-Ed columnist Maureen Dowd, a Pulitzer Prize winner. She notes that some women on the White House staff say they “are privately gratified at the latest kerfuffle, hoping it will shut down the West Wing man cave.”

Obama & Diversity: The Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Chatter about the Cabinet’s lack of diversity began building when Obama nominated several white men—Senator John Kerry as Secretary of State, Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense and, most recently, Jack Lew as Secretary of the Treasury—and news surfaced of two female Cabinet members’ resigning: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Solis.

The controversy came to a head when The New York Times ran a photo of Obama sitting in the Oval Office with 10 of his advisers—all 10 were male, and all but one were white. Senior Adviser and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls Valerie Jarrett was also in the room—but only part of her leg was visible in the shot because she was upstaged by one of the white men.

Obama has been under fire since from a wide range of high-profile media sources: Bloomberg View’s Margaret Carlson says “He doesn’t look beyond his nose for more minority recruits”; The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus says, “About all those white guys: What a shame. Not an outrage, but a shame”; CBS News Political Director John Dickerson says, “Look, Mr. President, you won your election based on the votes of women and minorities, so you should respect that in your naming of the cabinet picks.” Fifty-five percent of women, 93 percent of Blacks and 71 percent of Latinos voted for Obama, according to CNN exit-poll data.

In May 2012, Obama similarly received disapproval for a photo of his majority white campaign staff; only two members were Black, which is far below the 13 percent representation in the national population and the 33 percent representation in Chicago.

The post Obama’s Cabinet Diversity Record ‘Embarrassing as Hell’ appeared first on DiversityInc.

The congressional representatives (Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Trent Franks of Arizona, Thomas Rooney of Florida and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia) sent a 16-page letter to the State Department demanding an investigation of Abedin’s alleged connections to extremists and their infiltration and influence over the U.S. government.

Abedin, who is 37 years old and of Pakistani descent, was born in the United States. Her husband, former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, is Jewish.

The letter states that Abedin’s late father, mother and brother are “connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations” and “her position affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy-making” is cause for “serious security concerns.”

Additionally, the representatives question how Abedin received her security clearance as “the foreign influence of immediate family members is such a concern to the U.S. Government that it includes these factors as potentially disqualifying conditions for obtaining a security clearance.”

Keith Ellison, the first Muslim congressman, compared the allegations with 1950s McCarthyism and an unfounded witch hunt. “It’s like a bizarre game of six degrees of separation. She mentions that her father, who has been dead for two decades, knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who was connected to the Muslim brotherhood in some unspecified way,” Ellison told CBSNews.

Clinton said, according to the Huffington Post, that it is the duty of politicians “to speak out and protect diversity in their countries.”

Clinton praised other Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who have defended Abedin. She said: ”We have to set an example, there is no doubt about that. And we have to continue to do so.”

Abedin’s sister, Heba Abedin, is promoting an online petition on her Twitter account @hebs23 and demanding an apology from Bachmann.

 Leadership Matters 

Clearly defined values, as Clinton stated, send the message to organizations they must have defined values that everyone understands.  The message at the State Department – that bigotry and the false allegations that accompany it are not allowed – comes from Clinton and is consistent. 

DiversityInc has numerous examples of why CEO commitment to diversity and inclusion matters dramatically in an organization. These include the ability to gain buy-in from everyone, including middle managers and white men, and, most importantly, instilling the value of diversity and inclusion to strategic business goals throughout the organization.

Rockwell Collins CEO, President and Chairman Clay Jones recently told DiversityInc:

“We work and have lived in pretty much a male, white dominated industry. So we had to bring in outside thoughts to educate us on how other people think to focus on the value of our differences as opposed to accentuating them for all the wrong reasons.  It was through that training that my own thinking and the thinking of our leadership team really changed.”

Clinton, by publicly outing the five congressional representatives who made false accusations about Abedin, held them up to scrutiny for their actions.

Having a clear policy on what’s legal as well as what’s appropriate is important. Working with HR is also vital to ensure the messages are communicated to employees and there are enforceable penalties for misstatements.

The post Secretary Clinton, Senator McCain Condemn Anti-Muslim Attack on Abedin appeared first on DiversityInc.

The Obama administration’s shift in policy to support LGBT rights globally is a significant human-rights victory that will have long-term repercussions for companies doing business abroad. It is particularly relevant in countries where LGBT people must remain closeted for fear of ostracism, prison or even death.

The announcement, which came yesterday in a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Human Rights Day and a memorandum from President Barack Obama, sets the stage for a more specific series of U.S. actions for countries that do not move to create equality for LGBT people. Although her speech was short on details, she did say that the administration would use the “tools of American diplomacy,” including the promise of foreign aid, to encourage countries to be inclusive. She mentioned reporting LGBT abuses in the State Department report and a $3-million fund to work with LGBT organizations globally.

These may seem like small steps initially but they are the harbinger of a changing governmental attitude about LGBT rights that mirrors the inclusivity of several leading corporations. In the United States, several corporations on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list have led the way in establishing domestic-partner benefits and advocating for same-sex marriage and the end of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. For more, read How Can Corporations Support Same-Sex Marriage?

Globally, a handful of companies, led by IBM, have been working to create a more inclusive workplace, especially in some Asian countries where being openly LGBT destroys not only careers but lives as well. The companies have done this by including orientation in mission statements and cultural-competence training, publicly stating their support for LGBT rights, and creating LGBT employee-resource groups wherever possible. IBM received DiversityInc’s award last month as the Top Company for Global Cultural Competence.

DiversityInc recently completed its 2011 Global Diversity survey of 17 countries in Europe, Asia and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The survey found that, overall, European countries were more inclusive for LGBT rights, and several have legalized same-sex marriage. Asian countries gener­ally ignore LGBT issues culturally. The most egregious is Malaysia, in which “homosexuality” is against the law and cannot be mentioned.

This has presented significant challenges for companies doing business in Malaysia and other countries that do not recognize LGBT rights. As one of our survey respondents noted about Malaysia: “Malaysia still retains its colonial-era penal code criminalizing sodomy, and fundamentalist Islamic nations have a heavy influence on the nation’s laws, politics, cultural norms and societal attitudes, especially LGBT.” And another bluntly stated:  “Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia. We cannot work on this topic.”

The companies we surveyed, most of which have their corporate headquarters in the United States, take more proactive approaches to LGBT inclusiveness in the European countries. For example, sexual orientation is mentioned in the local country’s diversity and inclusion strategy in 31 percent of the European countries, compared with 17 percent of the Asian countries and 22 percent of the BRIC countries. By contrast, it is included in 100 percent of the diversity policies of U.S. companies on The 2011 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list. And while 17 percent of the companies in the European countries have public relationships with LGBT organizations there, only 2 percent of the Asian and 10 percent of the BRIC countries do. Again, 100 percent of the DiversityInc Top 50 companies in the United States have public relations with LGBT organizations, such as GLSEN, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), PFLAG and the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

The key here is that progressive corporations usually lead the way in changing both governmental and societal perceptions of inequities. As the U.S. government shifts to a more activist position on LGBT rights, the timing is perfect for companies with global presences to be outspoken and directed in their efforts.

For more information on our global survey and our upcoming 2012 global survey, click here.

Here is media coverage of Clinton’s speech and responses from LGBT organizations:

U.S. to Aid Gay Rights Abroad, Obama and Clinton Say
The New York Times reporters in Geneva and Washington, D.C., provide firsthand reporting of the pro-LGBT-rights initiative announced yesterday by the Obama administration and the potential backlash.

Hillary Clinton calls on world not to discriminate against gays
In this Los Angeles Times article, Clinton is cited as linking gay rights to other social-equality issues, such as women’s rights, racial equality and religious freedom.

Hillary Clinton On Gay Rights Abroad: Secretary Of State Delivers Historic LGBT Speech In Geneva
The Huffington Post provides a full-length transcript and video of Clinton’s address in Geneva. 

Sec. Clinton: LGBT Rights Are Human Rights
HRC President Joe Solmonese met with Clinton in Geneva prior to her speech. He shares his thoughts on the initiative.

NGLCC Co-Founders Attend Historic United Nations Speech by Secretary of State Clinton
The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce leaders provide their reactions to Clinton’s speech and global LGBT equality.

Hillary Clinton Attacks Anti-Gay Hate Crimes
The New Civil Rights Movement provides Clinton’s prepared remarks on LGBT rights from the conference in Geneva that celebrated International Human Rights Day.

The Arcus Foundation Announces Support of Global LGBT Initiatives Announced by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
The global foundation, which is aimed at advancing social justice, announces its support of global LGBT equality.

The post What Clinton’s Global LGBT-Rights Speech Means for Your Company appeared first on DiversityInc.