Diversity: Why do we need this conversation?

Several years ago, I attended a diversity webinar. Initially, I felt the topic was unimportant since I had never felt discriminated against at work, and my career flourished. The webinar's content was eye-opening for me, including discussions around the impact of perceptions and unconscious biases, as well as an engaging Ted Talk with Sheryl Sandberg on Why we have too few women leaders | Sheryl Sandberg - YouTube . I realized the higher in the corporate ladder, the more pronounced the gender gap in the workforce becomes. While that may be driven by the conscious choices women and men make about their careers, the more I got engaged, the more evident it was how unconscious biases actually quietly work to sabotage the D&I efforts.?

A few months after I had my daughter, I went for coffee with the webinar organizer, a woman deeply devoted to D&I and successful in her field.?In a casual conversation, she advised me, "woman to woman," that now, I need to be clear about my priorities between work and family, and "we women can have it all for sure, but not at the same time."??

On another occasion, I was chatting with a very close friend. She believed that gender diversity is not an issue, especially in her home country, where she had successfully built a career. I inquired how companies empower breastfeeding moms to manage work and baby responsibilities. She was surprised; her natural response was, "Why would breastfeeding moms want to be in office."?

Another friend of mine got promoted to a very senior role during her maternity. She had received solid support from her manager to balance it all out, and that on its own is a fantastic example of a true D&I in effect. However, the VP of Sales in the same organization told her he was disappointed about the timing of her move. He believed she should not have taken more responsibilities while also taking time off from work.?

These examples are seemingly unimportant conversations. But what they tell us, even in the most committed to diversity organizations, it is so easy to fall into the trap of unconscious biases and perceptions. We try to create an inclusive work environment where everyone has equal opportunities. Still, consciously or unconsciously, women's choices are questioned differently than men's choices. The cumulative public opinion about what choices men and women make in their lives has a secret power over what D&I policies will achieve and what choices people will actually make. When trusted advisors (such as D&I webinar organizer, a friend, or VP of Sales) question your willingness to stay in the workforce with your newborn baby, you would likely question it too.

Here are a few obvious ways how the gender inequality in the corporate world widens, while we progress through our careers:

• Women's choices in the workspace are questioned differently than men's choices?
• Men's choices outside of the workforce are questioned differently than women's choices?
• Men reach out for opportunities more often and more confidently than women?
• Women question their abilities more often and attribute their successes to help from others??

By now, there are way too many studies that provide context on how these dynamics really work.?

Lean In Book - Lean In

Why Women Don't Negotiate Their Job Offers (hbr.org)

How the Gender Pay Gap Widens as Women Get Promoted (hbr.org)

Fast Facts: The Gender Pay Gap – AAUW : Empowering Women Since 1881

By now also, D&I policies are well embedded in corporate cultures (at least across multinational and public companies). Respectable companies are making the matter a top priority, with new diversity champions, VPs of D&I, workshops, and training of all sorts. These efforts have been there for a while, and there is recognizable progress, but still, statistical results show more is required.?

The active conversation around D&I has brought great successes and a few pitfalls along the way. I categorize the conversation dynamics in the following way:

1. Diversity advocates

These are the people who speak at the workshops, lead diversity committees, and their active participation in the conversation creates general awareness. They are essential messengers who have to infuse consciousness in the organization and drive change behavior. But the outcome of these efforts gets distorted when the intent doesn't really match the objectives. Hidden attention-seeking agendas and insufficient competencies can turn out to be highly counter-productive. If the preacher is ingenuine, insincere, or lacks the depth of knowledge and self-reflection required, the message gets lost in translation, and hypocrisy is born instead.

2. Diversity Bystanders?

Many people at different stages of their careers would feel diversity is not an issue for many reasons:

?- Their companies' D&I success

- Their own flourishing careers?

- Lack of awareness?

- Lack of interest?

There is nothing wrong with that, but it is also important to remember:

If you are not intentionally including, you may be unintentionally excluding!?

Letting your unconscious biases drive your day-to-day decisions and conversations can contribute to forming perceptions and public opinions that are D&I counter-productive. No matter what role in the organization one takes - a hiring manager, aspiring employee, a colleague, a mentor, etc. - everyone has a role to play in creating an inclusive environment for all groups of our society.?

3. Diversity detractors

With the diversity conversation being so trendy, another group is forming of people who believe this is all a hypocrisy that disturbs the natural course of fair competition and creates unfair advantages for women over men. Probably in some cases, that belief is also true. True or false, these tensions have to be managed for the D&I efforts to be effective. The ultimate objective is alignment between all members of the organization, not further segregation. Fairness and objectivity are above all, and when organizations create D&I Policies, these principles should be vigorously enforced.?

I believe organizations could implement some core principles to ensure their D&I Policies are efficient.?

1) Start with Genuine Intent?

The messengers of D&I should genuinely care and continuously work on their own unconscious biases; It is not a publicity exercise, not a stretch assignment, not a professional tickbox. Anything less than a genuine intent is counter-productive. Kim Scott's book Radical Candor , although not directly addressed to the D&I topic, has plenty of insightful conversations about the benefits of caring personally.

2) Make it an everyday effort, not an annual event?

Workshops and annual meetings lack reach. The D&I conversation is not for selected groups; instead, it should reach every organization member, should be enforced in small bites again and again. Unconscious biases tend to creep back into our life even after we've corrected our behavior at some point in time. Eventually, we all tend to go back to our old ways, so more frequent reminders work better than once in a year massive event.??

3) Unite, don't divide?

While I have personally enjoyed some corporate Women gatherings, that type of event strongly contributes to the growing diversity detractors. First, it creates limitations to whom may attend. D&I should not be a top talent conversation; it is an everyday conversation. Further, men and women have the same unconscious biases and the same level of information, so there is no reason that only women should participate in the conversation. Unite means, bring everyone to the table so that everyone can learn and grow.?

4) Continuously enforce fairness and objectivity in every policy

Statistically speaking, the higher you go in the corporate hierarchy, the fewer female employees you may meet. If that is the statistics, that does not mean promoting only women on every occasion that comes across. Fairness and objectivity should be evident and obvious on the statistical level and case by case level. If they don't exist, companies should go back to their policy-making and infuse them; if they are not evident, companies should make them more apparent.?

Further to this, fairness requires equal opportunities for men and women in office and at home. Women may aspire to a more active role in office during maternity. Equally, men may wish to have a more active role at home and paternity. Creating effective policies that enable equal choices for men and women at home and the office is where the D&I can really make a difference.?

Note: Most of my comments above are based on personal observation and lack analytical research. I am curious to hear in the comment section if you share similar or different experiences and what readings you find useful on the topic.

Note 2: My personal experiences have helped me reflect and write specifically on gender diversity, however, equality and inclusion are pressing issues in any of their forms - race, religion, beliefs, disabilities. Awareness of all types of inequalities should be a top priority, and as I embark on my awareness journey, I hope I will be able to soon share more thoughts on the topics.

References:

Sheryl Sandberg, 2010. Why we have too few women leaders.??Why we have too few women leaders | Sheryl Sandberg - YouTube

Kim Scott, 2019. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity ;?Radical Candor — Be A Kick-Ass Leader And Empower Your Team

Sheryl Sandberg, 2014, Lean In:?Lean In Book - Lean In

Hannah Riley Bowles, 2014, Why Women Don't Negotiate Their Job Offers. Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2014/06/why-women-dont-negotiate-their-job-offers?utm_medium=email&utm_source=circ_other&utm_campaign=subbenemail_actsubsnotbest_20211102&hideintromercial=true&tpcc=subbenemail&deliveryName=DM158215

Lydia Frank, 2015. How the Gender Pay gap Widens as Women get Promoted. Harvard Business Review:?How the Gender Pay Gap Widens as Women Get Promoted (hbr.org

AAUW. 2019. Fast Facts. The gender pay gap. AAUW:?Fast Facts: The Gender Pay Gap – AAUW : Empowering Women Since 1881

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