Report shows lack of diversity in industry's executive roles

The first European Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report for the beauty industry has revealed just under half (48%) of beauty businesses have no ethnic minority representation on their boards, and just over half (51%) have no ethnic minority on their executive committees.

In addition, whilst the beauty industry employs huge numbers of women, very few make it to C-suite or executive roles. The report shows that over 70% of Executive Committee seats in the beauty industry being held by white, middle-aged men.

The European Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report doesn't include statistics relating to the current levels of LGBT+ and disabled inclusion within the industry, however it does make mention of strategies to improve such representation within the beauty industry.

The report was published by the MBS Group, CEW UK and ScienceMagic.Inc.

To gather the data, researchers reached out to the 100 largest companies operating in Europe, however fewer than 50% responded to the request to be interviewed for this research, which the report authors suggest could be due to nervousness from beauty businesses to engage in the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Commenting on the release of the European Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report, Sallie Berkerey, Managing Director, CEW UK, says:

“At CEW UK, we are proud to work alongside The MBS Group and ScienceMagic.Inc to deliver this valuable report on D, E & I in the European Beauty Sector. CEW is committed to being a force for good in the Beauty industry, and this report is an essential first step in understanding the current situation and challenges we face. I hope businesses, big and small, find it an essential tool providing practical advice and guidance to implement insightful I&D strategies and increase momentum to make measurable positive change.”

Read the report in full here.