Tracing the history of diversity training to the 1950s, Joanne Lipman tackles the issue from all directions in this excerpt from her book, “That’s what she said.” She covers a half century of terms and biases that still need resolution through improved strategies to understand and act equitably.
Source: Time, January 25, 2018.
A recent Harvard study found that corporate “diversity training” has made the gender gap worse; in part because it makes men feel demonized. Women, meanwhile, have been told closing the gender gap is up to them: they need to speak up, to be more confident, to demand to be paid what they’re worth. They discuss these issues amongst themselves all the time. What they don’t do is talk to men about it.
INSIGHTS: “Training done badly can also damage otherwise cordial relationships,” writes Lipman. Women and minorities often leave training sessions thinking their coworkers must be even more biased than they had previously imagined. In a more troubling development, it turns out that telling people about others’ biases can actually heighten their own. Researchers have found that when people believe everybody else is biased, they feel free to be prejudiced themselves.”