This year has been dominated in many ways by the coronavirus, but retailers have also faced pressure to address company diversity as protests against systemic racism broke out across the U.S. this summer. 

While many retailers responded to the protests with supportive statements and pledged to take action against racism and discrimination, increasing representation in the workplace is not a one-month event. Nor is it a one-year event. Changing representation, especially at the highest levels of an organization, is a long-term goal.

Retail Dive took a step back to look at racial and gender diversity in the retail industry from several different angles. In the package below, we look at how people of color and women have been left out of executive roles in retail, the challenges of measuring and maintaining diversity, why some female-focused sectors are still run by men, and the specific challenges that beauty and athletics retailers face in improving executive leadership representation.

In wake of the #MeToo movement and the national reckoning with racism in recent years, the retail industry has been forced to acknowledge and start to address racial and gender disparities in its ranks. True diversity at organizations extends beyond focusing on singular elements of the identities people bring with them into the workplace. Retail Dive's analysis in this series focuses on representation gaps for people of color and women, and is rooted in available data. We plan to continue to explore diversity issues in the retail industry in our coverage.