You may have read my recent article on the Inclusion Growth Curve published with Women in Mining Women in Nuclear Saskatchewan (WIM/WiN-SK) and are wondering where to start with your learning around equity, inclusion, and diversity (EDI). In this post, I share with you some basic terminology along with why and how to start your equity journey.
First, Let’s understand Equity
If you haven’t spent as much time thinking and learning about equity, you may want to consider gender as a place to start your equity journey. Gender equity is defined as a:
Means of fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different, but which is considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations, and opportunities. (Pavlic, Ruprecht, & Sam-Vargas, 2000, p. 5).
We can think of equity as a means of fairness according to one’s respective needs. This does not mean that everyone gets equal measures of treatment, but that people are supported based on their own individual requirements. In an equitable environment, people are supported to reach their full potential. How then do inclusion and diversity relate to equity?
Diversity
Diversity is a measure of variety. Common diversity indicators are often used to measure employee demographics within an organization. Examples of common demographic categories are gender, race, physical ability, and sexual orientation.
In a diverse environment, there are a rich variety of visible and visible differences amongst and in individuals.
Inclusion
Inclusion is the acceptance and celebration of differences in an organization; verbal and non-verbal inclusionary behaviors may be required due to educational, physical, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, and/or racial differences.
In an inclusive environment, people feel supported to be themselves.
It is important to note that much of understanding EDI is not about labeling people, but in supporting people with where they are at and allowing people, if they choose to do so, to self-identify. If we want to have people fully engaged and empowered in their lives and careers, we need all three elements of EDI.
Growing Call for Change
There have been growing voices for social change for decades, however, more recently, we have had the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Lives Matter movements. The common theme around these movements is calling out inequity and oppression which are present and reinforced in our systems and culture. Many of our systems, from how our businesses operate to how our laws are written and interpreted were developed during much different times. As a result, inequities, such as racism, sexism, or homophobia may be so embedded in these systems or our own biases that, at first glance, some of us may not notice how they impact everyday lives. However, we can see the results of these embedded biases in our systems when we look at disaggregated statistics, statistics which use diversity categories, as they may show disparities between genders or racial groups. If we look at the global pandemic that we are currently living through, there have been many reports on how women’s careers are being impacted at higher rates than men’s due to added burdens of care giving with closures of schools and daycares. We have also seen where First Nations communities have had high instances of COVID-19 infections, and as a result, in some provinces are now being prioritized to receive early access to vaccinations.
When considering EDI, another key term to understand is intersectionality. Considering intersectionality allows us to understand that people are multi-facetted and may have multiple identities. Therefore, there may be multiple forms of inequity and oppression individuals may experience based on different facets of their identity. As an example, Canadian Women’s Foundation (2018) reports that Indigenous women are likely to earn less money than other women in Canada, who also earn less money than men.
Why We Need Allies
People can experience inequity and oppression in many forms and in many parts of their lives. In the workplace, under-represented people may face more challenges, such as inequities and oppression, than their peers who are in the majority group. In my recent article withWIM/WiN-SkI mention that people who experience oppression cannot opt out of being oppressed, however, allies, who have un-earned privilege, can opt in to support them. If you can’t think of a time when you have been at the receiving end of unconscious bias, discrimination, or harassment, then you may have privilege and thereforeyou can choose to opt into being an ally.
Unconscious bias: Stereotypes or worldviews that we may have for different groups of people.
Discrimination: Subtle or exclusionary behaviour or actions from an aggressor to a receiver based on a difference in perceived categorization of diversity, often including an imbalance in power; behaviour may be unintentional, written or verbal; although the receiver may feel threatened and insulted, the aggressor’s behaviour may not be intended to commit a personal attack, but likely is due to the aggressor’s categorization of the differences of the receiver.
Harassment: Overtly inappropriate behaviour that is communicated by physical, written, and/or verbal means and directed from an aggressor to a specific receiver at a specific time and place. A personal attack that is often directed due to an imbalance in power and has an element of unacceptance of diversity. Bullying is a form of harassment.
When people in the majority choose to be allies, they can help support the under-represented people in their workplace. By doing so, allies may also receive benefits of improving systems that really aren’t working the best for them either. An example of one of these systems is parental leave. Many women feel a great deal of uncertainties about all of the changes that come with becoming a new parent and may have added stress with considering a break in their career for a parental leave. Similarly, men may like to access parental leave benefits to participate in all the excitement and work that comes with a new baby, however, sometimes feel pressured to not take advantage of parental leave benefits due to potential career impacts. What if we had parental leave systems, that didn’t just offer us time and money to spend with our new bundles of joy, but also felt comforted knowing our reintegration or continued involvement in our career was part of the parental leave system. In summary, by using the concepts of equity, inclusion, and diversity we can take a critical look at our systems and culture and make conscious changes that will benefit everyone.
What to do next
As with any problem, you need to first start with defining it. Defining a problem involves understanding the common language that is used to describe the problem, recommended solutions, and also finding data that supports your description of the size of the problem. This may involve doing your homework and defining the scope of the problem you are looking to solve. Perhaps you want to better understand a particular form of oppression, such as racism, or understand inequities in certain environments, such as the workplace. Further, you could take an intersectional approach and consider challenges that Indigenous women in your workplace may face.
When I started my master’s research, I began my understanding of the problems I was looking at by first looking at the available data, which involved gendered data. I wanted to see how many women were working in the mining industry (~16%) and found that this number had only increased ~2% over a 30 year period (Mining Industry Human Resources, 2018). My goal for 2021 is to expand my equity knowledge beyond gender. I have created a reading list which covers topics such as racism, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, and LGBTQ2S challenges. I am also continuing my understanding on motivating others to become allies, which is the main focus on my PhD research. Here is a sample of my 2021 reading list:
"How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
“21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality” by Bob Joseph
“Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity” by Julia Serano
“Indivisible: Radically Rethinking Inclusion for Sustainable Business Results” by Alison Maitland and Rebekah Steel
I would love if you share with me what books, videos, or podcasts you are taking in to help you become a better ally. Good luck on your equity journey and feel free to reach out to my company, Prairie Catalyst Consulting, if you or your organization need help with starting on your equity journey.
References
Canadian Women's Foundation. (2018). Fact sheet: The gender wage gap in Canada. Retrieved from https://www.canadianwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Gender-Wage-Gap-Fact-Sheet_AUGUST-2018_FINAL1.pdf
Mining Industry Human Resources. (2018). Canadian mining labour market outlook 2019. Retrieved from http://www.mihr.ca/pdf/NationalOutlook2019_EN_Final.pdf
Pavlic, B., Ruprecht, L., & Sam-Vargas, S. (2000). Gender equality and equity: A summary review of UNESCO's accomplishments since the fourth world conference on women (Beijing 1995). In: UNESCO.