2006 Best Companies for Women of Color.

These 12 trailblazing companies have cutting-edge policies and practices that support African-American, Asian-American, Latina and Native-American women in the workplace. They reflect the good news that women of color are making gains in number and in status throughout corporate America. In the four years since we introduced this initiative, multicultural women have secured more jobs and more leadership positions at our winning companies. And our findings echo national trends: Over the past decade, employment for women of color has been climbing steadily; they're also landing more jobs as managers, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

We know that it can take years to see diversity initiatives translate into a workforce profile that includes high numbers of women of color in top positions. Multicultural women continue to lag behind their white counterparts in terms of salary and advancement. They also continue to be underrepresented in management positions, in executive suites and on company boards. There's still much work to be done. That's why we weighted programs that help women of color and policies that hold managers accountable for advancing them—what we call "company culture"—more heavily than other categories in our application this year. We want to recognize the companies with programs that promote the interests of women of color because we know the numbers will follow. We salute our winning companies for their passion and persistence: They know it's a marathon, not a sprint.