BalanceNow is a non-profit research institute focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in our society.
History:
Balance Now was started by individuals who saw a strong need for highlighting the lack of diversity in decision-makers within public offices, companies, media, and other private and public institutions that shape our lives. Specifically, our goal was to visualize who makes up the leadership that holds all of the decision-making power in these institutions. In July 2020, we began creating a publicly accessible platform that could be a resource on leadership diversity while also providing innovative solutions for American audiences to make our leadership more representative of the diverse make-up of the population.
Scope
For the sake of our research process, we defined leadership as those serving in the following roles: Board of Directors, Founders/President, Directors, CXO, SVPs. So far, we have focused on two designations: race and gender. We classified race and gender into two categories each: white or people of color (POC), and male or female. People are considered white if they are of European descent and considered POC if they are Asian, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx, Mixed, or any other non-white race/ethnicity. As to gender, we began only by looking at ‘gender at birth.’ Currently, the US population is composed of 40% people of color and 51% women. The purpose of research and writing is to showcase how closely the leadership of an entity represents the American population.
We chose the designations of race and gender not only because data on these metrics is more publicly available, but also because historically, people of darker complexion have been exploited for labor and seen as ‘less’ in various aspects of life — from media representation to hiring practices. Women are also less likely to be hired or elected into leadership positions, and women of color are at the intersection of these prejudices.
Vision
One of balance’s ultimate goals is encouraging American audiences to be more cognizant of the decision-makers in the institutions that influence their daily lives. The perceptions held by our society about people of color and women vary from individual to individual and are by no means equivalent experiences for all. However, these statistics help show the glaring discrepancies in the diversity of decision-makers of major institutions that shape our lives — from those who make our food to films to health policies.
Future
As we move into another era at balance, we hope to broaden our classification systems to represent race and ethnicity more specifically and a fuller range of diversity metrics, such as non-binary gender classification, age, sexuality, religion, education level, socioeconomic background, disability status, and veteran status. We hope the balance platform encourages institutions to embrace diversity within their leadership and for everyday people to drive that change, empowered by a willingness for betterment and insight provided by our platform.
Invitation
We are a team of people inspired by a vision for an inclusive and equitable society and welcome anyone to join our team in various capacities who are aligned with the mission.
Feel free to reach out to us if you would like to join the team!