“When we’re talking about diversity, it’s not a box to check. It is a reality that should be deeply felt and held and valued by all of us.”
~Ava DuVernay
Hi all,
A couple of articles caught my eye over the past couple of weeks which were particularly disquieting on the DEI front.
Men feel threatened by equality agenda
Firstly, two in five Britons think championing women’s equality discriminates against men. Digging deeper into the research, 53% of men share that view compared to one third of women. Another alarming stat was that the proportion of Britons who say they are frightened to champion the equal rights of women for fear of reprisals has doubled since 2017.
This fitted with the insights from our own research conducted around International Men’s Day. Nearly half (44%) of the male respondents believe they would struggle for another role due to their demographic profile while, significantly, double the amount feel they had to show active engagement in I&D despite it ‘not being relevant to (their) career’.
The THC view
DEI has largely been positioned as something we all have to do to benefit women. The pressure on men to be the provider can be just as damaging as the pressure on women to be the carer. This cannot go on. I fear that this theme of ‘excluding men’ is only going to grow, and will cause huge damage to any progress we have made. Perhaps worse, I fear it is behind the radicalisation of many teenage boys who are, alarmingly, buying in to the sexist ideology of people like Andrew Tate.
We need to show men and boys what is in it for them. We need to give them a voice, and listen, even when it feels uncomfortable. It is true that many men feel alienated right now, particularly in the younger and older demographics. Inclusion is for everybody.
Our Masculinity in the Workplace event held around International Men’s Day each year feels more vital and relevant than ever. Do get in touch if your organisation would like to be part of it.
“Wokeness” brings down bank
The second piece was a news story - the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. I noticed pundits and senators blaming it on DEI, the highest profile being, the allegedly presidential hopeful, Ron DeSantis.
“This bank, they’re so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff. I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission.” — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fox News on Sunday
The New York Times (behind a paywall here), claim that this lacks evidence and that experts broadly agree that it was nothing to do with ‘wokeness’. Instead, they point to a decline in start-up funding, rising interest rates and selling bonds at a loss to raise capital. Disquietingly, in their efforts to disprove the wokeness/collapse theme, they look to the number of women and non-white women on the board, finding Silicon Valley Bank to be ‘one of the more racially diverse financial institutions, but not extraordinarily so’.
The THC view
I’m no banker so will not attempt to explain the reasons behind this current banking crisis. But I do notice a bias - ‘diversity lowers standards’ - creeping through some of the commentary. Also, that the NY Times rather misses the point by even needing to look at the number of women/non-white women on its board. It feels insulting and irrelevant.
Diversity efforts in organisations need to be clearly routed in a ‘why’ that is linked to the business case. We urgently need to create a system in which people, planet and profit are intrinsically linked, and I for one don’t believe there’ll be an organisation standing in ten years’ time that hasn’t embraced this way of thinking. This is clearly not a widespread view, as the commentary on the collapse shows. Many are still seeing (and dare I say it, some companies are still positioning) diversity as an incremental, nice to have, initiative with no clear link to business outcomes.
Until next time,
Rox x