Dive Brief:
- Sixty-six percent of Black women alter their hair for a job interview, 41% of whom straighten their hair, according to the CROWN 2023 Workplace Research Study co-commissioned by Dove and LinkedIn released Feb. 16.
- Twenty-five percent of Black women say they have not gotten a job interview because of their hair, the study found. And Black women with coily or textured hair were twice as likely to face microaggressions at work than their counterparts with straight hair.
- "For far too long, Black women and men have been subject to unfair treatment, outright discrimination and a myriad of inequities for simply wearing our natural hair texture and hair styles that are inherent to our cultural identity. This includes being denied employment, being sent home from work, being overlooked for promotions and a range of microaggressions,” Esi Eggleston Bracey, president and CEO of Unilever Personal Care in North America, the parent company of Dove, said in a news release. Dove in 2019 co-founded the CROWN Coalition, which now includes more than 100 organizations, to support anti-hair-discrimination laws.
Dive Insight:
Across the U.S., at least 20 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and other municipalities have passed laws prohibiting hair-based discrimination. And there has been an unsuccessful push for a federal Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act. The act passed in March 2022 in the U.S. House of Representatives but not in the U.S. Senate.
Minnesota is the latest state to pass CROWN Act legislation, signing it into law Feb. 1. The law “explicitly prohibit[s] racial discrimination based on natural hair texture and hair styles such as braids, locs and twists.”
“Discrimination has no place in Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Walz said in a news release. “By signing the CROWN Act, we are sending a message that Black Minnesotans deserve to live and work free from discrimination. Today we are taking an important step in creating a more equitable Minnesota.”
California was the first state to approve a CROWN Act, passing legislation in July 2019.
