Women, Diversity, and the Workplace

The topic of diversity and gender equality is broad and, quite naturally, diverse. For this blog post I am reflecting on the comments made by Rosabeth Moss Kanter as they pertain to gender discrimination.

Ms. Kanter makes an early point that it is difficult to draw black and white distinctions about gender inequality while being firm that it exists. Women and men often find themselves in different roles as far as leadership is concerned. Men are found in high risk roles and women are found in people roles. This distinction may be reflected in the national pay disparities as high risk roles tend to pay more. This begs the question, why don't more women get into these roles? Kanter states that people trust people that are similar to themselves. If men have traditionally are in high risk roles as places by obvious discrimination in the past it stands to reason that men will promote other men to those roles. However, Kanter states that women are making their own inroads in other areas such as sole-proprietorship's and even politics. It may be that there will be a shift to women in power in the future.

The crux of many of Kanter's comments centered around women taking care of other women and through that sort of empowerment, create company cultures that are supportive of family and gender equality. I really like her perception that people trust the judgement of those that find familiar. However, that sword can cut two directions. As we grow a new generation of leaders it is important that we begin to not discuss the gender of a candidate but rather what they bring to the table. Supportive corporate cultures will begin to chip away at these distinctions as they will allow workers to thrive free of discrimination concerns.

Yukl brings a few concerns about gender identity to mind and these also need to be addressed in the broader concept of diversity. Once again, I feel that as these ideas gain acceptance by larger amounts of the population you will see trans-gender (using this term to include gay and bi-sexual as well) people moving into leadership roles and then bringing their values with them to the workplace. As noted, this will start to change corporate cultures as well.

Many of Yukl's other reasons for sex-based discrimination such as lack of inclusion, lack of mentoring, and lack of opportunity I feel can be addressed by people trusting what they see as similarities. To say this is discrimination is inaccurate as I think discrimination is willful. Instead this is a lack of emotional intelligence and self-awareness. Becoming aware of one's own biases and tendencies is important for any leader and must be addressed if we are to become a more diverse and inclusive group of leaders.