In 2003, Working Mother took a chance: Could we create a new initiative based solely on the advancement of multicultural women? That first year resulted in only 3 winning companies; now 25 make the grade. This year, we return to bright minds who helped us launch the Best Companies for Multicultural Women to ask: Has it gotten any easier for working women of color?

Ten years ago, when Working Mother first decided to look at race and gender in the workplace, women of color told us that they felt they could not be themselves at work and did not have the same opportunities for advancement as everyone else. They were outsiders, trying to understand the unwritten rules and navigate a system created by white men.

And now?

“There is greater awareness in some industries and some companies that women of color have not advanced the way they should,” says Dr. Ella L.J. Edmondson Bell, founder of ASCENT: Leading Multicultural Women to the Top, a nonprofit focused on career development for minority women. Bell’s insights into the different experiences white women and women of color encounter in the workplace informed Working Mother’s initiative a decade ago. “Do [multicultural women] have greater opportunities today? Yes, by all means. But it’s still not the same journey that a white male or a white female will have.”

Corporate America has made strides to improve hiring, retention and promotion of women of color. Back in 2003, we celebrated 3 winners—2 of which, IBM and American Express, have made the list every single year since. This year, 25 companies have earned recognition for recruiting, networking and mentoring programs that ensure minority women have access to seats in the C-suite. Within our winning companies, these efforts are paying off: In 2003, neither IBM nor American Express had any multicultural women on its board; now 17% of IBM’s and 8% of American Express’s board of director members are minority women.

Multicultural women now hold two very visible CEO seats at major companies: Indian-born Indra Nooyi took the top job at PepsiCo (in its sixth year on the list of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women) in 2006, and Ursula Burns, who is African American, was named CEO of Xerox in 2009.

But despite the recent visibility of multicultural women at the top, overall, not much has changed in the past decade. According to U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission figures, in 2010 (when the latest figures were released), minority women represented only 7.7% of the officials and managers in private industry—up only slightly from 6.3% in 2003. Over the same period, the proportion of white men decreased to 52.3% from 55.6%; the number of white women held steady at 28.9%; and the ranks of minority men grew to 11.1% from 9.1%.

“Companies still don’t know how to deal with people who are not white and male,” argues Dr. Bell. “When you look at African American women, for example, they have very little in common with white men, in terms of demographics and background. When you still label talent and say ‘This is what success looks like’ and it’s packaged in white male terms, it makes it difficult for women of color.”

Better relationships are key, says Dr. Bell, which is why Best Companies provide real opportunities for multicultural women to engage with mentors and peers from different demographics. At IBM, CDO Ron Glover says all executives are expected to find mentees outside of their own race and gender. “The idea is to develop personal relationships that will broaden cultural understanding, so they are cross-race and cross-gender relationships that sometimes take place across countries,” he says.

Marilyn Johnson, an African American woman who started as a market support representative at IBM in July 1977, says that several years ago, then-CEO Louis Gerstner challenged white male leaders to mentor and sponsor women of color. “As a result, in 1996, this senior executive, Ralph, asked if he could be my mentor, and he groomed me for my first executive position,” says Marilyn, 58, who is now vice president of market development. “I was given opportunities, and he made me believe that I had what it takes.”

Dr. Bell says that beyond fostering these kinds of relationships, companies also need to make sure that they understand the needs of multicultural women. “To be successful in a large organization,” she says, “you need to make sure people understand you and how you work, and that you understand what the company’s needs are and what its leaders expect from you.”

Suzan Kereere, 46, says her employer, American Express, has demonstrated its commitment to her as a woman of color not just by providing corporate sponsorship opportunities and international assignments but also by meeting her needs as a mother. Suzan, who was born in Uganda, has held several different positions in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia since she started at American Express in 1998. Today, she is a senior vice president in Global Merchant Services, in New York. A year ago, Suzan made the decision to return from Australia so that her elder daughter, Agatha, now 19, could finish high school in the United States. (Suzan’s younger daughter, Orlinka, is 13.) Suzan was initially nervous about asking her direct leader for the transfer: “I felt I was letting the company down,” she says, “but the minute I broached the subject and raised the needs of my family, there was this sense of urgency to look at the options so that we could get back.”

Dr. Bell points out that the commitment to diversity at companies like IBM and American Express is not just about making women of color feel good. As companies expand globally, they need a workforce that reflects and understands the needs of customers from diverse backgrounds.

A decade ago, Suzan Kereere made essentially the same point in our first Best Companies for Multicultural Women issue. At that time, women of color made up just 2% of the top executives at American Express; today, they represent 5% of corporate executives and 8% of senior managers—and minority women make up 12% of the top tenth of the company’s earners. “There was a time I didn’t see women like myself at the top,” says Suzan. “Now there are more women coming in at the top, middle and bottom of all races. If you look at the company globally, we look very different than we did 10 years ago. We look a lot like me, and I like that.”