Demystifying DEI: Diversity
Intro
Welcome to Her Era! No matter where you’re at on your DEI journey, it’s never too late to learn more. I’m sure you have noticed an uptick in talk about DEI- whether it’s at your own organization or posts you see from brands you love. But how many can really say they understand the concepts behind this acronym? Has it just become a filler term? This will be a post explaining some basic terminology and concepts around diversity, demystifying what it actually means in practice and how we can measure progress.
Defining Diversity
Let’s start with defining the term diversity. Some dimensions of diversity and how we define it are related to: race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, ability, religion, language, geographic location, or military experience, among others. These different dimensions of diversity make up an individual’s identity. They are things that make each of us unique, and affect how we experience the day to day. Like all parts of our identities, some of these dimensions are visible and others are more invisible. It’s important to keep all these dimensions in mind, and so important not to stack rank them. When organizations are thinking about improving diversity, the end goal needs to be growing the size of every slice of the pie, not cutting the same slice into smaller pieces.
Context Matters
So what is diversity in the workplace? The number one goal that most organizations have is to diversify the representation in their employee base. That means improving the mix of who they are hiring- and these goals are set around groups that are historically and currently underrepresented within a given organization or industry. Context matters for how this get defined. An underrepresented group can often be defined in relation to who is the “majority” within any given environment. For example, when you look at the tech industry in the US- majority groups have historically been White, Asian, and male employees. Within this industry context, the Latinx population is underrepresented, representing around 6% in tech at large, and often less at individual companies. However, when you context switch just 1 component- let’s say geography, it changes your goal post. In Latin America, Latinx individuals would not be considered underrepresented because they are in fact the dominant ethnic group. In Latin America, underrepresented groups include: Black individuals, indigeneous folks, women, and the LGBTQ+ population, among others. So you can start to see how complex and nuanced it is to set goals around representation, it requires ongoing learning to understand how to get it right, and companies need to hire and trust the experts in this space.
In the US, most companies have set their representation goals around race, ethnicity, and gender. Most recently, due to the racial reckoning we witnessed following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, many companies have prioritized race equity, specifically aiming to improve the representation of Black employees at their organization. Due to systemic racism, this demographic group has often been the most marginalized and excluded, and represents the biggest gap for many companies to close. Many companies have started to get more transparent around their diversity data, and share annual reports. You can find an example of one from LinkedIn, Apple, and Netflix. While this has increased the transparency, there is still a large lack of accountability to make change year over year. Amazon promised to double Black employees in leadership, and countless other tech companies made large pledges that they have yet to show progress around.
Language Matters
Terminology in DEI is an evolving topic, and changes often. The US census continues to use the term “minority” for many demographic groups. In the DEI space, however, that is now seen as outdated and problematic. This is partly because the root word minor is defined as “inferior in importance, size, or degree: comparatively unimportant.” Hopefully that framing will make it abundantly clear to you why calling someone a minority is problematic and a harmful narrative.
It’s also factually untrue. Many of the historically excluded groups in the workforce, particularly people of color- are not a “minority” within the population. Non-whites are actually a majority globally; they are the fastest growing demographic groups in the US, and have been for many years. In 2015, the US census released a report that stated- “by 2044, more than half of all Americans are projected to belong to a minority group (any group other than non-Hispanic White).” For these reasons, instead of using the word minority, in Her Era content you will see: underrepresented, historically excluded, and marginalized instead. For similar reasons, it’s also not okay to call someone a “diversity candidate.” Instead, we encourage companies to use terminology such as “candidate from an underrepresented group.”
Here at Her Era, I will continue to educate myself on this topic, and I’m committed to using the most inclusive and uplifting terminology, centering the voices and perspectives of other women and BIPOC.
Why Diversity Counts
Many leaders and organizations have rallied around this (fairly new) idea that diverse teams are smarter, more productive, and produce better results. It’s common to hear leaders say things like “we know we need to hire more women, not just because it’s the right thing to do but because it’s better for business.” In fact, there is plenty of research showing that women led organizations perform better and are more profitable. But in my experience, this data alone is not getting organizations to hire more women. I personally find the narrative around “diversity is good for business” to be problematic. Why does a leader or corporation need additional business justification to hire a BIPOC? If a leader needs any unique kind of justification to hire a BIPOC but does not need the same justification to hire a white individual, then it’s clear there is a problem.
Driving outcomes in diversity requires leaders who are committed to changing the culture and removing the status quo through everyday small actions. It means being open to candidates from “nontraditional” backgrounds, and being able to identify and stop bias in every stage of the hiring process. The biggest action I encourage everyone and especially every leader to take is to simply expand & diversify your network. If you keep tapping on folks that look just like you, your team will continue to look the same as it does today. If you keep making exceptions for folks that look just like you, but continuously set the bar higher for BIPOC, you are contributing to keeping things just as they are. So what is one small action you can commit to doing today to build a more diverse community at your organization?
