Five reasons Black women are ready to quit Corporate America

Mandi Woodruff-Santos, YF Contributor, Cohost of Brown Ambition Podcast, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the career shift for Black women.

Video transcript

- Welcome back. Well, women have disproportionately been forced to leave the workforce as a result of the pandemic compared to men. But even within that demographic, Black women in this country are exiting corporate America at an astounding rate. Mandi Woodruff-Santos, Yahoo Finance contributor and co-host of the "Brown Ambition" podcast, joins us now. Mandi, thank you so much for your time.

I don't know if this applies only to Black women or to other minorities as well. But you do say there are five major reasons Black women are leaving. And the first one is our jobs were ravaged by the pandemic. Can you explain that?

MANDI WOODRUFF-SANTOS: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, of course, a lot of minority women were impacted by the pandemic. Women in general were ravaged by the pandemic. But Black women, in particular, are in the jobs that were most impacted by the pandemic. We're talking about service jobs, travel and tourism.

You think about restaurant workers, child care providers, health care providers. Those are often Black women. So whether it's from our choice or not, often we were finding that the industries that we were in were completely susceptible to the repercussions of the pandemic, which was truly unfortunate.

JARED BLIKRE: Yes, and Mandi, great to see you back here. What are some of the solutions here? We were just talking to a previous guest about some of the wealth gap, especially along racial lines. Do you partner with any other groups? Do you just raise awareness? What are you aiming for here?

MANDI WOODRUFF-SANTOS: No, I'm just here to cause controversy, Jared. That's what I do. But, no, honestly, the first step to the solution is understanding why Black women are fleeing corporate America and what can they do. Yes, I don't think the onus is on Black women. Listen, we tried to make it work. It's like any toxic relationship.

We had to put our own life vest on, our own oxygen mask and get out, because honestly, corporate America-- it can be a wonderful place. I built a wonderful career myself working for corporations. But it gets mentally, emotionally draining to be the only one to feel like you are constantly underappreciated, undervalued. Black women-- one of the many reasons why we are quitting corporate America is because we're just tired of not making equal pay for equal work.

I mean, we don't have a century, which is what experts say that's how long it's going to take for Black and Brown women to reach pay equity. We don't have a century to wait. I got kids I need to feed now or one kid and a dog. She counts too. So that is one of the reasons why we are leaving. We're not leaving to do nothing.

We are leaving for higher pay elsewhere, because, I think, the pandemic has really helped to solidify in our brains where our value is, and to also become more brave and courageous in asking for it. It also helps that the job market these days is on fire.

So a lot of Black women, in particular-- When you feel underappreciated, when you've been underpaid and mistreated, when you've been the only one for a long time, we are a textbook flight risk. And it's a shame for the companies that are losing us. But at the same time, I completely see why we are reaching for new opportunities.

- I actually loved one of the reasons that you pointed out that women are leaving. And that is because they're starting to get more savvy. They're launching their own businesses and they're taking on side hustles as well. So that is really taking some ownership there?

MANDI WOODRUFF-SANTOS: Absolutely, Black women are among the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs. I am one of them. I'm a newbie business owner myself. But it's because, honestly, when you look at the opportunities for growing wealth to own our time, to take back the narrative of our own careers and to really control our own destiny, I think a lot of Black women-- we are just very well suited to running our own businesses and to becoming entrepreneurs.

So I share one stat in my story that shows that Black-women-owned businesses grew at 50% between 2014 and 2019. I wish I had more recent numbers. I did try to find them. But I can only imagine it's gotten even more substantial in the wake of the pandemic.

JARED BLIKRE: Well, at least one is sitting before us right now. And congratulations on your entrepreneurship, by the way. I'm just wondering, if you look across different industries, maybe even specific companies, some are doing this better than others. Where are women leaving from and where are they heading towards that you're seeing?

MANDI WOODRUFF-SANTOS: Yeah, for me, I do a lot of career coaching. I actually posted a free link to sign up for career coaching from me to my Instagram followers, all 8,000 of them. I had nearly 300 people pour their hearts out to me about why they were looking to leave their job. And the majority of the women I'm talking to-- they are not entry-level. They are people who are mid-level, and they just don't feel like they can crack that next rung on the ladder. And they're just tired of waiting for that opportunity.

They come from the education sector. They come from travel and tourism sector, health care sector. These are industries, like I said, that even if you were fortunate enough to keep your job in the wake of the pandemic because there have been people who have been leaving, the more pressure put on those who are left behind.

I'm seeing this high rate of burnout, especially among the women that I'm talking to from those sectors that were hardest hit by the pandemic. They're just truly burnt out and looking for a change.

- Mandi, I truly love to see women mentoring women. Mandi Woodruff-Santos, Yahoo Finance contributor and co-host of the "Brown Ambition" podcast, thank you so much for your time. That was a really fascinating discussion.