DIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION 

Today I will be discussing the different types of diversity. You may be wondering what is diversity? That is why I’m here to tell you what each type of diversity means and why celebrating diversity is so important. Diversity as a whole is the characteristics that make us unique and to break this down further it is arranged into seven sections and those are Race, Ethnicity, Age, Sexual orientation,Gender, Disability,body shape and size.  

Race

Race is visible physical traits such as skin colour, hair texture and facial features. Some people discriminate against race diversity and some examples of this are when an individual experiences prejudice because of a certain aspect of their race like that individual’s national origins.  Some people might even experience direct race discrimination, for example not being offered a job due to their race. Another way people discriminate is indirectly and they get away with it too by giving a defense for putting a policy, rule or practice in place. For example, refusing to employ an individual in a hairdressers due to wearing a hair covering. It is considered harassment to be called offensive names by your colleagues and is a form of bullying. 

Gender and sexual orientation 

Gender is how you identify, either male or female. Some of the things that highlight a lack of equality are for example, advertising a job for a waiter as this excludes women. Another form of discrimination that may be considered less direct is employees at a company being required to work full time when many women could have caring responsibilities that take priority. A colleague may  even use care responsibilities like taking your child to nursery to discriminate against you because you’re doing less hours than them.

Sexual orientation is referred to as a person’s identity in terms of the gender or genders someone is sexually attracted to. Sexual orientation is just as much an identity as being male or female and being treated equally is a right. Being seen as different isn’t an excuse to deny individuals of that. Individual’ s with certain sexual orientations still aren’t being treated equally and some examples of this are being treated less favorably because of sexual orientation and putting  a policy, rule or practice put in place that someone with a particular sexual orientation is unable to meet. Another scenario where there is a lack of equality is if an individual of a certain sexual orientation makes a complaint against the manager at a gym and as a result they refuse to grant them access to use their facilities.

Disability

A disability is defined as being a physical or mental impairment, for example autism or ADHD are mental disabilities and a spinal cord injury or cerebral palsy are physical disabilities. Despite any challenges an individual may face they can overcome those barriers to let their potential shine through. In the UK 41% of working age disabled people don’t feel valued and only 42% consider the UK a good place to live.  1/3 experience prejudice in their day to day life.  Some of the situations that may occur where Disabled people are discriminated against are someone treating a disabled individual in a way that makes them feel humiliated and harassment can never be justified. Another example is being regularly sworn at by colleagues because of a disability. Scope is fighting for equality for disabled people with its #DisabilityGamechanger. There are 14 million disabled people in the UK. There is so much to do to achieve equality for disabled people.

Cultural identity 

Cultural identity relates to an individual’s beliefs and can mean a variety of things such as someone’s nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class or generation. Culture is very broad and every single one of us has a culture. Cultural identity should be actively celebrated because it nurtures respect and open-mindedness, it also shares common interests, what makes us different and it helps educate and unite all of us.  For example if there were two people from separate religions although their beliefs may be different they can still educate one another with the knowledge they have of their culture. 

Age

Age is how young or old you are. Many people end up experiencing discrimination because of their age. Some examples of prejudice are during workplace training being told how old and slow you are and this causes distress for the individual. Victimization is another form of prejudice and it may happen if an employee is helping colleague report discrimination to the manager and as a result your manager treats you badly for getting involved.

Equality is lacking. What can be done ? 

Discrimination is very much still present in many businesses despite the current measures put in place. People experiencing this prejudice say it has left them feeling uncomfortable and many claim discrimination has impacted their mental health. Regardless of what it is whether it be race, gender, disability, etc we all deserve to feel equal and discrimination needs to go. 

Top four tips for inspiring change:

•    Don’t let your decisions be influenced by bias.

•    If they’re not already put equality policies in place. 

•    Identify and prevent unconscious bias, we all have it we just need to be more aware about this part of ourselves and know how to go about addressing it. 

•    Don’t let company policies let any groups be put at a disadvantage.

Thank you for reading today’s blog post. Have you seen or experienced discrimination in the workplace?

If you have let us know in the comments. If you want to see more content like this you can see more content here:

https://www.apply4u.co.uk/blogs

Amber from the Apply4U Team 

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