Is a ‘rainbow glass ceiling’ keeping LGBTQ+ professionals from the boardroom?

New research highlights the barriers that make up the rainbow glass ceiling that keeps LGBTQ+ professionals from corporate boardrooms and C-suite roles.

While there are notable queer corporate leaders, such as Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Airbnb’s global head of operations Tara Bunch, the sad reality is that for many queer professionals, their climb to the top ends outside the boardroom.

Estimates from Out Leadership suggest that less than one per cent of the 5,670 boardroom seats at Fortune 500 companies – an annual list published by Fortune magazine that ranks the largest 500 corporations in the US by total revenue – are filled by an LGBTQ+ director.

While there is more representation for women and other minorities in board representation, it is clear that a rainbow ceiling exists for queer professionals, demonstrating a persistent gap in equality and inclusion within corporate structures.

The building blocks of the rainbow ceiling

In his paper, The Rainbow Glass Ceiling: Breaking Barriers for LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Board Diversity, Ryan Federo, an associate professor at the Universitat de les Illes Balears (University of the Balearic Islands), identifies the key barriers that stifle LGBTQ+ professionals’ corporate climb and how they adjust their behaviours to circumvent the glass ceiling.

Federo says his personal experiences, navigating the corporate world as a gay man from the religiously conservative Philippines, played a role in the research.

“It’s a lived personal experience,” he tells PinkNews. “I thought that if this happened to me, then probably this is happening to other people out there who are part of the community.”

However, Federo was still surprised to find that, despite the growing number of LGBTQ+ people in senior roles, the visibility stops short of the board room and C-suite.

“It’s so shocking to me that there is an increasing number of firms having policies about LGBTQ+ employees, but then again, we’re forgetting one part of the equation: what about those people at the top?”

Federo attributes this lack of representation to a phenomenon known as “intergroup bias”, the tendency for people to favour and associate with those who share similar demographic characteristics or social status.

“I think it’s one of those challenges for LGBTQ+ professionals because the boardroom, unfortunately, [is] dominated by white, male, older, cisgender straight people.

“We are one of those groups that are highly marginalised in this setting because there are very few of us already there and [we] aren’t supposed to enter because they think we’re quite different [to] them.”

Avoiding the rainbow ceiling

In the face of this bias, Federo identifies strategies that LGBTQ+ professionals take on to progress in their careers: going back into the closet, becoming vocal about their identity and creating their own niche environment where their community can thrive.

While Federo acknowledges the potential of being closeted in certain contexts, such as living in a country where being LGBTQ+ is still illegal, he is hesitant to recommend it, recognising the mental anguish and “dissonance” it can create.

He believes that “feathering,” or being more vocal in your identity, especially at companies where diversity, equity and inclusion is part of their framework, could be a less mentally taxing strategy, but also notes that it could be perceived as “tokenistic.”

Instead, he advocates for the niche construction strategy, where LGBTQ+ individuals and allies work to create their own supportive environments and organisations.

“You create your own and because of that, you created a safe space for your community, and for them to be able to nurture their capacities and provide resources for them to be able to become executives and directors later on.”

Federo points to San Francisco and Barcelona as cities where this has already happened, with vibrant LGBTQ+ communities and businesses that have helped foster greater representation in corporate leadership.

“I think it’s one of those things that demonstrates that it’s not only beneficial for us as part of the community, but it also benefits society,” he says.

“They recognise that there is this more-open environment and that can help them to become who they are.”

While the path to greater LGBTQ+ representation in the C-suite may be long and arduous, Federo remains hopeful that his research can shed light on the rainbow glass ceiling, making it easier to shatter.

“That [discrimination] was happening two decades ago, and even now we still don’t see people like us in executive positions, and people have been suffering from these challenges.

“I realised that I can do something that I’m good at, doing research, and at least I can provide a research-based presentation of the challenges our communities are facing.”