

It's no surprise that women are leading in more ways than one when comes to making boss moves. While some have left the workforce altogether to start businesses, stay at home with their children, or travel, others have taken new, traditional career opportunities to the next level. Women have bagged 57% of the more than 530,000 new jobs that opened up in October, according to reports, and hey, it's always good to know that our savvy, flair and smarts will be dominating into the new year.
Which leads us to this: Where are the jobs, and what companies are putting action behind words to diversify their ranks with opportunities for women to thrive? (There's still work to be done of course, in terms of CEO and board appointments, and equal pay, but that's a whole other story). Let's take a look at the "best" companies for women, according to the experts who put together select elite lists every year. These are companies that have implemented policies, initiatives, and practices that put inclusion, safety, and minority advancement at the forefront.
(A quick note: This list isn't exhaustive nor is it intended to be a ranking of any kind. It's a snapshot, summarized based on inclusion of companies consistently listed on multiple "best" lists that point to not only being great for women, but for Black women specifically, to give you a starting point for research to pursue your career goals.)
1.ADP
If you've ever had to download an app to get your 401K info, tax returns, or digital paystubs, you're probably familiar with ADP. It provides human resource management software and services that are widely used across the globe. AnitaB.org, an online platform, and women computers' community founded in 1987 named ADP among its "2021 Top Companies for Women Technologists" report, in part due to its efforts to "build leadership capabilities to recognize and mitigate unconscious bias in over 2,000 leaders globally through training."
The company also made Seramount's (formally Working Mother Media), "100 Best Companies" list for working mothers, which takes into account whether a company offers inclusive options like flexible work schedules and great childcare benefits.
(A bonus: It's rated highly at 4 out of 5 stars on Glassdoor, a leading platform that highlights reviews from actual employees, both former and current.)
2.The Hershey Company
This powerhouse chocolate manufacturer made Forbes' list of "The World's Top Female-Friendly Companies 2021," ranking at No. 1. For this list, more than 85,000 women were asked to rate their companies on things like pay equity and parental leave, and they were also asked to describe how the brand's backed gender equality or "perpetuated negative stereotypes." Another reason Hershey reported made the cut was due to an initiative the company launched called the Pathways Project, described as "a five-year plan to make its workplace and communities more inclusive" and their savvy in introducing the HSY Care Connect app which offers transportation, tutoring, childcare and eldercare resources.
3.Hilton
They've got top rankings in the hospitality industry, and they took the No. 1 spot on Fortune's 2021 "Best Large Workplaces For Women" list. In partnership with Great Place to Work, a platform that quantifies employee experiences at companies across the U.S., the feedback of more than 5.6 million U.S. workers was analyzed to gain perspectives on "whether different identities women hold change their experience of the workplace," and insights on the daily experiences of innovation, company values, and leader effectiveness.
It also made the top 50 on Glassdoor's 2021 list of "Best Places to Work," with reviews praising its "flexible work hours" and focus on valuing employee opinions.
4.Navy Federal Credit Union
This banking institution headquartered in Virginia ranked 25 among Fortune's 2021 list for "Best Workplaces for Women," but what stands out, even more, is that the company works with groups including Women in Technology, Achieve Escambia, and HBCUs to advocate for and facilitate career advancement for minority groups. They've also hosted organizations such as the African-American Credit Union Coalition, the Human Rights Coalition, and the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America, and they were once named among Fortune's "10 Best Workplaces for African Americans."
5.Bank of America
Bank of America made both the Forbesand Fortunetop lists this year that are specific to women and their needs in the workplace. And more specifically—for our melanated career women—this company made the top 5 on a recent Glassdoor list that focused on "satisfaction" ratings and other insights directly from Black professionals. On a scale of 1 to 5, it had the second-highest "overall company" rating among Black employees surveyed.
6.Estee Lauder
A popular and super-successful beauty brand with a global reach, Estee Lauder made the top 25 on Forbes female-friendly list, but it's also very telling the recent initiatives this company's gotten behind to provide opportunities specific to Black women. There's the Howard University partnership to empower alumni with a career hub, the recent establishment of the Equity and Engagement Center of Excellence to boost equity, and the more-than-inspiring existence of Black women executives among its ranks like Deirdre Stanley, executive vice president and general counsel, and the amazingly chic Black girl magic of the women of NOBLE, the company's Black employee resource group.
7.Hubspot
Comparably, an online resource that provides culture and compensation data, ranked Hubspot No. 1 for "Best Companies for Women," a list that was compiled from the observations of female employees on management efforts to promote diversity and inclusion and provide a positive environment for women. Women gave the company an "A+" rating overall, and the same rating was given about perks and benefits.
The software company also made FlexJobs' list "28 Best Remote-Friendly Companies for Women" due to its flex work and remote job options.
8.Airbnb
This popular lodging and vacation rental platform made Forbes' list for best companies for women, and Airbnb also made the cut for Parity, a platform that works to close race and gender gaps in business. Their list, "The Best Companies for Women to Advance," includes companies that all have "a zero-tolerance policy for harassment," "safe complaint system for employees," and practices of "regularly" communicating gender-equality values to employees.
9.Spectrum Health
Here's a healthcare company that not only made Forbes' 2021 list of "America's Best Employers By State," but more notably in relation to female professionals made Seramount's 2021 "Best Companies for Multicultural Women," list. Spectrum Health reportedly offers paid maternity and gender-neutral parental leave and responded to the challenges of COVID-19 by offering employees childcare resources, support, and remote work options. The company also also "requires cultural competency training, implicit bias education, and diversity in the interview process."
10.Capital One
With convenient web-based financial service options, this bank also boasted high ratings among Black professionals in Glassdoor's report, "Black At Work, which analyzed satisfaction survey perspectives among employees at 28 companies. It also madeFortune's Best Workplaces for Women and Best Companies for Millennials lists, as well as People Magazine's "Companies That Care" list.
For more job search tips, career advice, and profiles, check out the xoNecole Workin' Girl section here.
Featured image via Getty Images/Shannon Faggan
Laterras R. Whitfield On What He Wants In A 'Future Wifey' & Redefining Masculinity
In this week's episode of the xoMAN podcast, host Kiara Walker chopped it up with Laterras R. Whitfield, host of the Dear Future Wifey podcast, for a raw and revealing conversation about personal growth, faith, and the search for love in a way that resonates.
Laterras Whitfield Believes Men Should Pursue, Not Persuade
“Let me know you exist, and I’ll do the rest”
Whitfield is a big advocate of a man’s role in going confidently for the woman he wants. “Men should pursue, not persuade, and women should present, not pursue,” he said. He’s open to meeting women on social media but isn’t a fan of bold approaches. “Don’t shoot your shot at me. … Let me know you exist, and I’ll do the rest.”
His ideal woman?
“She has to be a woman of God… I judge a woman by how her friends see her… and most importantly, how she treats my kids.”
Infidelity, Redemption, and the Power of Self-Control
“Being disciplined is the most beautiful thing you can offer”
Once unfaithful in his previous marriage, Whitfield has since transformed his perspective on masculinity. “Being disciplined is the most beautiful thing you can offer. That’s what true masculinity is to me now.” He has also committed to abstinence, choosing self-control as a defining trait of manhood.
Whitfield’s journey is one of redemption, purpose, and faith—something that speaks to women who value emotional intelligence, accountability, and the power of transformation.
Rewriting the Narrative Around Black Masculinity
What masculinity, legacy, and healing mean to Whitfield today
“My dad taught me what not to be [as a man] and my mom taught me what she needed [in a man],” Whitfield said. While his father wasn’t abusive, he wasn’t emotionally or affectionately present. “Since I didn’t see it, I never got it either… I would look at my dad and say, ‘I want to be a better father.’ ”
Adoption had always been on his spirit, influenced by TV shows like Different Strokes and Punky Brewster. This mindset led him to take in his nephew as his son after a powerful dream confirmed what he already felt in his heart.
Want more real talk from xoMAN? Catch the full audio episodes every Tuesday on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and don’t miss the full video drops every Wednesday on YouTube. Hit follow, subscribe, and stay tapped in.
Featured image by xoNecole/YouTube
Meet The Founder Behind Ami Colé, The Brand Putting Black Beauty First
Here’s an indisputable fact: Black is beautiful. It always has been, and it always will be. No one understands this more than Diarrha N'Diaye-Mbaye.
As a little girl growing up in Harlem, New York, the Senegalese-American entrepreneur spent a lot of time in her mother’s hair salon watching the carousel of Black women that would come through the doors of the shop, and saw how beauty could be a communal experience.
As an adult, beauty would continue to occupy a significant portion of her life. “I worked in places like Temptu, L’Oreal, Glossier,” N’Diaye-Mbaye told xoNecole. But there was still a nagging feeling inside of her of wanting to capture the beauty she was exposed to in her mother’s shop as a child. “You know what? Lemme try this crazy thing,” she said.
Enter: Ami Colé.
Ami Colé Powder
Ami Colé is the makeup brand N’Diaye-Mbaye founded as an homage to both the Black women she was surrounded by in Harlem and her friends. “I wanted to create something simple that most of my girls were wearing and things that I saw growing up in Harlem,” she said.
While the industry has seen strides in inclusivity over the past few years, there’s been a dearth of products and cosmetic lines dedicated specifically to people with darker complexions, with Black women being left with little to no options for skin-matching coverage. With a boom in brands in recent years that have put Black beauty at the front and center of its mission like Range Beauty, The Lip Bar, and of course Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, suddenly a new dilemma emerged for people like N’Diaye-Mbaye who wanted to launch their own makeup brands.
“It was very difficult not only to get access in terms of people answering your emails,” N’Diaye-Mbaye said of her early struggles in trying to get funding from financiers for Ami Colé. “People would say: ‘Well Rihanna has a brand, why would you need another brand?’”
It wasn’t until the racial reckoning of 2020, when N’Diaye-Mbaye said that investors became “a little bit more sensitive and sensitized to where they sit on the spectrum of equity,” that she was finally able to fully fund her company. N’Diaye-Mbaye officially launched Ami Colé in May 2021. Before launching, N’Diaye-Mbaye said that she surveyed Black women to see what customers wanted from a beauty brand.
“By the time we launched, we knew exactly what type of makeup look, makeup style this customer was going for,” she said. “We knew what shades she was using already and the new products she was missing or how to make her makeup routine just more simple.” In addition to their makeup products like the popular lip oil and foundationless base products, Ami Colé offers items like incense and N’Diaye-Mbaye said they’re even hoping to expand to fragrances in the near future. “We're always challenging ourselves to think about Ami Colé as a lifestyle,” she said.
“We're always challenging ourselves to think about Ami Colé as a lifestyle.”
In their first year of sales alone, Ami Colé brought in $2 million in revenue, proving that there is space for more than just one Black beauty brand to thrive. When I asked N’Diaye-Mbaye if she ever felt like giving up through the arduous process of trying to get her dream off the ground, she said: “My parents are from Senegal and came here with no playbook, no internet, no security. They were able to come here and kind of forge to this new chapter and era of our family and a generation.
"So, whenever I do feel discouraged – which happens a lot, I'm only human – I think back to what people before me had to do to make sure that I can even have the option or the blessing to even create my own plan. So I never quit."
Since the story first ran, Ami Colé launched in Sephora across North America, and BeautyMatter projects the brand will close 2025 with an expected revenue range of up to $10 million. The brand also made things official with L’Oréal’s BOLD fund in 2024, and even crowdsourced a "Brick Red" lip oil treatment earlier this year.
Featured image courtesy
Originally published on November 8, 2022