Relational Responsibilisation and Diversity Management in the 21st Century: The Case for Reframing Equality Regulation
Autor/in:
Vincent, Steve; Lopes, Ana; Meliou, Elina; Özbilgin, Mustafa
Quelle: WES (Work, Employment & Society), (2024)
Inhalt: This article critiques equality regulation within neoliberal policy regimes and suggests an alternative. We argue that, globally, neoliberal regimes exacerbate social divisions by individualising responsibilities for addressing inequalities. Consequentially, a new policy direction for equality regulation is required. Using the UK economy as an exemplar, we make the case for relational responsibilisation, which involves raising awareness of workplace inequalities on an international basis; attributing responsibility for inequalities onto specific socioeconomic causes and institutions; and systematically developing policies and practices that extend accountability for and ameliorate the negative consequences of workplace inequalities. Theoretically, Bourdieusian social critique and realist sociological imagination are used to conceive responsibilisation in relational terms and to imagine a policy agenda that might make societies more responsible for tackling the forms of inequality they produce. Our overall argument is for the creation of a new equality, diversity and inclusion-aware form of social democracy.
Schlagwörter:Diversität; equality; inclusion; policy analysis; practice-theory relationship; regulation and compliance; responsibility; UK
CEWS Kategorie:Arbeitswelt und Arbeitsmarkt, Diversity
LGBTQ Young Adults’ Attitudes Toward Workplace Antidiscrimination Policies: A Cross-National Analysis Between the USA and Japan
Autor/in:
Ueno, Koji; Ritter, Lacey J.; Kane, Melinda D.; Bastow, Skyler; Dominguez, Rachael; D’Amours, Jason V.
Quelle: Sex Res Soc Policy (Sexuality Research and Social Policy), 21 (2024) 1, S 177–192
Inhalt: Previous US studies showed that LGBTQ workers played a key role in persuading their employers to include LGBTQ workers as a protected category in antidiscrimination policies. These studies tended to assume that LGBTQ workers are generally supportive of the policy change, but the assumption has not been directly examined. Further, the assumption may be unrealistic for countries where LGBTQ worker activism is uncommon. To address these gaps in the literature, this study investigates how national contexts shape LGBTQ workers’ attitudes toward antidiscrimination policies by comparing the USA and Japan. The study analyzes data from in-depth interviews with LGBTQ young adult workers. The data were collected in the USA between 2011 and 2020 (n = 27) and in Japan between 2018 and 2022 (n = 29). The analysis reveals that US LGBTQ workers strongly support antidiscrimination policies by expressing a sense of collective identity as LGBTQ people and their trust in formal rules. In contrast, Japanese LGBTQ workers question the necessity and effectiveness of antidiscrimination policies by interpreting policy implementation as employers’ PR performance and by underscoring their need to develop interpersonal trust with colleagues while staying closeted. US and Japanese workers’ contrasting views on antidiscrimination policies reflect national differences in how LGBTQ people experience and cope with social marginalization in each country. We make policy recommendations as to how employers and governments in the USA and Japan can support LGBTQ workers while addressing limitations of antidiscrimination policies that LGBTQ workers perceive in each country.
In/visible: The intersectional experiences of women of color in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine in Australia
Autor/in:
Nash, Meredith; Moore, Robyn
Quelle: Gend Work Organ (Gender, Work and Organization), (2022)
Inhalt: It is now well-established that science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) institutions globally should invest in building diverse and inclusive workforces. However, women of color remain underrepresented in STEMM in Australia and their organizational experiences are under-researched. To address this gap, we used a qualitative approach to explore the complex intersections of race/ethnicity and gender that may contribute to women's underrepresentation in Australian STEMM. Primary data encompassed interviews with 30 self-identified women of color working in academia, industry, and government STEMM organizations. We drew on intersectionality theory to explore participants' experiences of their working environments and grounded theory in our analysis. This article focuses on an understudied area related to the maintenance of white male power in STEMM and everyday experiences of “in/visibility”—the paradoxical space of invisibility and hypervisibility that women of color occupy within STEMM fields. For example, various features of women of color's identities, such as physical appearance, cultural background, accent, and name, led to participants feeling “different” and hypervisible in STEMM workplaces in Australia, in which the stereotype of a white male scientist predominates. Women also felt hypervisible as race/gender tokens when they were expected to do the diversity work of the institution. In contrast, participants felt invisible when they were professionally and socially excluded from networking events, such as after-work drinks. Women of color's experiences of having to work much harder than white colleagues to gain recognition of their organizational value also contributed to feelings of invisibility. The study findings provide deep insight into Australian STEMM cultures by foregrounding how in/visibility shows up in the experiences of women of color. This study builds on our understanding of women's STEMM careers as inextricably linked to intersectional features of social identity and white masculine power dynamics in organizations and society more broadly. We conclude by advocating for a more nuanced understanding of “women in STEMM” in Australia (e.g., via more sophisticated data collection and analysis) to ensure that national policies and initiatives benefit all women.
Setting adequate wages for workers: Managers' work experience, incentive scheme and gender matter
Autor/in:
Huber, David; Kühl, Leonie; Szech, Nora
Quelle: PLOS ONE (PLOS ONE), 17 (2022) 8
Inhalt: Many societies report an increasingly divergent development of managers' salaries compared to that of their workforce. Moreover, there is often a lack in diversity amongst managerial boards. We investigate the role of managers' gender and incentive scheme on wages chosen for workers by conducting two experimental studies. The data reveal male managers respond in more self-oriented ways to their incentive scheme. Further, we find that experience with the workers' task can increase appreciation of workers. Effects are strongest when the managers' compensation scheme rules out self-orientation. Overall, female managers display more consistency in choosing adequate wages for workers, i.e. their choices are less affected by incentives. An increase in diversity may thus help reducing salary disparities and foster work atmosphere.
Women’s experiences of racial microaggressions in STEMM workplaces and the importance of white allyship
Autor/in:
Moore, Robyn; Nash, Meredith
Quelle: International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology; Vol 13, No 1 (2021), (2021)
Inhalt: This article explores how gender interacts with race, ethnicity and/or culture to structure the microaggressions experienced by visibly and culturally diverse women in Australian Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) organisations. We focus on these women’s experiences to disrupt the normative erasure of race from the workplace diversity context. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with women in academia, industry and government who self-identify as women of colour or as culturally diverse. We use an intersectional lens to show that the challenges experienced by visibly and culturally diverse women cannot simply be subsumed under gender. Rather, race and gender intersect to create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage. These issues are largely unintelligible in STEMM fields as science is positioned as gender- and race-neutral. Consequently, despite their devastating impact, racial microaggressions may be invisible to members of the dominant racial group—those most likely to be the peers and managers of visibly and culturally diverse women. White managers and peers can act as allies to women of colour in STEMM by respecting and amplifying their concerns. Learning to recognise and confront racial microaggressions can help make science workplaces more inclusive of all scientists.