Hispanics Are Less Likely to Take on Leadership Roles Growing Up; How it Impacts Later On?

Hispanics are one of the demographics least likely to take on leadership roles growing up. A study from the Pew Research Center found that 55% of Hispanics in the U.S. said they sometimes, often or extremely often took on leadership roles in their school or community while growing up.

While this is more than half of respondents, Hispanics were the second least likely to answer positively, only ahead of Whites. About two thirds of Black and Asian people said this was the case for them. Overall, the study surveyed 5,000 U.S. adults about their own experiences with leadership roles when they were growing up.

Through this, they found that adults with post-graduate degrees were the group most likely to say that they took on leadership roles at least sometimes, and adults with bachelor's degrees were the group second most likely to have taken on leadership roles.

U.S. Census Bureau data shows that Hispanics were the group least likely to have bachelor's degree in 2021, although the percentage did increase from 2011. In 2011, 14.1% of Hispanics had a bachelor's degree or higher, while the figure grew to 20.6% in 2022 in regards to having a bachelor's degree or higher.

Although data shows Hispanic people as the group second least likely to have taken on leadership roles growing up, they were second most likely to be encouraged to take them on. 52% of Black people said they were encouraged, while the figure was 49% of Hispanic people, 46% for Asians and 41% for Whites.

The figures also vary depending on the different generations: "55% of adults under 30 say they were encouraged to take on leadership roles when growing up, compared with 45% of those 30 to 49, 40% of those 50 to 64 and 38% of those 65 and older," reads a passage of the study.

What Are Demographics Like in the U.S. House of Representatives?

Pew Research Center Data from January 2023 showed that the 118th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in history, with 25% of its members saying they identified as something other than non-Hispanic white.

The House has 434 members, 121 of them identifying as something other than non-Hispanic white. 46 members of the House were Hispanic, about 11% of the Lower House and lower than the demographic's proportion of the entire of the U.S. population: 19%.

Regarding the Senate, there are six Hispanic members, making up 6% of the Senate. Other than non-Hispanic white people in the Senate, Hispanics were the largest group, followed by Black people, who made up 3% of the Senate.