tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/equal-opportunity-4340/articlesequal opportunity – The Conversation2024-02-08T19:17:44Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2221542024-02-08T19:17:44Z2024-02-08T19:17:44ZAustralians love to talk about a ‘fair go’. Here’s what it meant before we became a nation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573697/original/file-20240206-24-mn43my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C989%2C785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-148533449/view">National Library of Australia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Fair go” is an expression we hear a lot in Australia. Activists use it to demand social justice, companies use it to promise customers a good deal, and politicians invoke it to persuade us that they understand the plight of ordinary people. </p>
<p>Most political commentators and academics who write about the fair go associate the phrase with Australia’s famed <a href="https://www.dca.org.au/news/opinion-pieces/land-of-the-fair-go">egalitarian traditions</a>, including equality of economic opportunity, universal political rights and the provision of a safety net via minimum wages and welfare programs. </p>
<p>Yet the fair go expression is sometimes used in ways that are distinctly inegalitarian. Former prime minister Scott Morrison repeatedly declared his belief in “a fair go for those who have a go”, suggesting the concept only applies to hardworking, “deserving” Australians. Morrison’s comments <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/17/the-meaning-of-morrisons-mantra-about-getting-a-fair-go-is-clear-its-conditional">drew the ire</a> of critics who argued he was subverting the original egalitarian meaning of the fair go phrase, along with the Australian culture of benevolence to the needy. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1125332350882029572"}"></div></p>
<p>So who is right about what a fair go means to Australians? Are some uses more faithful to our “fair go traditions” than others? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-australia-land-of-the-fair-go-not-everyone-gets-an-equal-slice-of-the-pie-70480">In Australia, land of the 'fair go', not everyone gets an equal slice of the pie</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Origins in the sports pages</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10361146.2023.2170211">research project</a>, we went back to the earliest recorded mentions of the fair go phrase in colonial-era newspapers to understand the original uses and meanings of this phrase, focusing on the period between 1860 and 1901. </p>
<p>We found the most common uses of the fair go expression did not refer to equality, benevolence and social justice. Instead, the phrase was mainly used to describe spirited efforts in competitive sports such as horse racing, boxing and sprinting. We found this in an <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/227936298">article</a> published in New South Wales in 1889:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They were stripped of shoes and everything and had a fair go with the hurdles out about 18 yards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In sport, a fair go could also mean trying your hardest, as opposed to “pulling” a race or “throwing” a match, such as in <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120653023">this piece</a> from 1892: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>With a dishonest jockey aboard […] an owner never knows whether he is to get ‘a fair go’ or not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A fair go could also refer to a thrilling, close match that entertained spectators, or a lucky win for gamblers, as in the expression “having a fair go for their money”. The fair go phrase was also used in politics in the context of closely
fought elections, such as in <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155981003">Western Australia in 1900</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] he can depend on a fair go for it, for it’s a dead certainty he won’t gain the seat unopposed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Fair go” could also refer to violent power struggles. In an <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3524500">1891 telegram</a> sent during the Shearers Strike in Queensland, a union leader advocated achieving a fair go by force: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] if a little more devil was put into our actions the better it would be for us in the end. We have tried passive resistance and it appears to have failed. Let us try the other now, and have a fair go.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a group of men standing in a bush campsite." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The term ‘fair go’ was used during the Queensland Shearer’s Strike in 1891.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE316889">State Library of Queensland</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The expression was sometimes used to refer to fistfights in politics and beyond, such as <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/216692383">this piece</a> in 1897: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fights between members of Parliament or city or municipal councillors are not of rare occurrence in Australia, but a fair “go” between lawyers with the “bare bones” is not often chronicled.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It was even used to describe violence in wartime, such as when an Australian soldier in the Boer war <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page12085571">expressed a hope</a> to a reporter that the enemy would “let him have a fair go […] with the bayonet”. </p>
<h2>Different contexts, different meanings</h2>
<p>While the dominant meanings of the fair go in the 19th century referred to competition and power struggles, we also found uses that resonate more with egalitarianism, social justice and procedural rights. In an 1891 article about politics, a fair go could mean the right to speak:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You are a liar and the father of a liar. Why don’t you let me speak? This is my maiden speech and you might let me have a fair go.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fair go phrase was also used to <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/216907224">advocate for</a> the principle of one person, one vote, as well as <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page7513252">ranked voting</a>. </p>
<p>In sport, a fair go was said to require <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19024103">impartial umpires</a> who didn’t favour one side over the other. In the legal system, a fair go required the right to <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114314382">due process</a>, such as the provision of warrants for arrests and adequate defence in the courtroom. </p>
<p>While these ideas resonate with contemporary concerns about equal rights, non-discrimination, and proper process in government, they represented the minority of uses of the fair go phrase in the 19th century. Uses of “fair go” to refer to benevolence to the poor and the need for a safety net were virtually absent in the period we studied. </p>
<p>These findings highlight that the fair go originally meant different things to different people, and in different contexts. In our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8500.12624">recent research</a>, we show that 19th-century uses of the fair go can be organised into six distinct meanings. These reflect the fact that the words “fair” and “go” have multiple meanings associated with both “justice” and “strength”.</p>
<p><iframe id="84J3U" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/84J3U/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>These different interpretations are alive and well today, and can be used to critically <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8500.12624">assess public policies</a> on contentious issues such as housing affordability and immigration. </p>
<p>Who is right about the true historical and contemporary meaning of the fair go? Our research shows no political ideology or party has a monopoly on the fair go. How we talk about the fair go reveals the ideas that shaped us as a nation, and the values that influence our political debates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cosmo Howard receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This article was funded under the ARC Discovery Project: DP220101911 – Understanding the Antipodean 'Fair Go'.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pandanus Petter receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This article was funded under ARC Discovery Project: DP220101911 – Understanding the Antipodean 'Fair Go'.</span></em></p>Politicians often wheel out the phrase, but what does it really mean? We examined newspaper articles from before Federation to track how it was used.Cosmo Howard, Associate Professor School of Government and International Relations, Griffith UniversityPandanus Petter, Research Fellow Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1805672022-08-18T02:17:55Z2022-08-18T02:17:55ZWe asked children how they experienced poverty. Here are 6 changes needed now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479263/original/file-20220816-12-dx3w5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C2560%2C1682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Orlando Vera/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An <a href="https://cpc.weblogs.anu.edu.au/files/2021/10/Children-Communities-and-Social-Capital-Report.pdf">eight-year-old boy</a> is often hungry, but knows if he tells his mum, she will eat less herself and go hungry. He hates the thought, so he stays quiet.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19452829.2021.1911969?needAccess=true">11-year-old girl</a> knows once rent is paid, there is almost nothing left over, so she tries not to ask for too much. She never takes school excursion notes home in case the cost is too much.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://cpc.weblogs.anu.edu.au/files/2021/10/Children-Communities-and-Social-Capital-Report.pdf">10-year-old boy’s</a> dad has been angry since he was injured at work; he can no longer support his family, and awaits compensation. It makes this boy feel sad, but he understands and tries not to add to his dad’s stress.</p>
<p>This is how children have described their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19452829.2021.1911969?needAccess=true">experiences of poverty</a> in research I have done over several years.</p>
<p>Children have also told us relationships are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chso.12197">essential</a>. They talk about the importance of family, the strength of community, and people <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/giving/impact-stories/paul-ramsay-foundation-supports-anu-to-end-disadvantage">helping one another</a>.</p>
<p>These help buffer children from the effects of poverty – but none can address its structural drivers, or the ways systems fail many people.</p>
<p>Decades after then prime minister Bob Hawke <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/no-child-will-live-in-poverty-30-years-on-bob-hawkes-promise-remains-an-elusive-goal-20170621-gwvdya.html">declared</a> that by 1990, “no Australian child will live in poverty”, the problem remains very real in Australia. </p>
<p>So what is that experience like for children, and what needs to be done?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/richer-schools-students-run-faster-how-the-inequality-in-sport-flows-through-to-health-185681">Richer schools' students run faster: how the inequality in sport flows through to health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Three key themes</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://researchprofiles.anu.edu.au/en/persons/sharon-bessell/publications/">research</a> shows that when we listen to children about their experiences of poverty, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19452829.2021.1911969">three themes</a> almost always emerge. </p>
<p>First, not having the material basics – enough food, a safe and secure home, transport - is a near-constant problem for <a href="https://cpc.weblogs.anu.edu.au/files/2021/10/Children-Communities-and-Social-Capital-Report.pdf">far too many children</a>.</p>
<p>Some of these things can be bought if money is sufficient, but some – like secure housing and transport – require investment in public infrastructure and equal distribution of resources. These are structural problems, not individual ones. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I have found children are more likely to talk about the importance of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19452829.2021.1911969?needAccess=true">food</a> than toys or electronic devices. Hunger shapes priorities powerfully.</p>
<p>Second, poverty limits children’s ability to participate in activities and services (such as sport, public library time and health care).</p>
<p>This can be due to families not having the money – but often the barriers are, once again, structural. Schools in low-income areas are often under-resourced, playgrounds are less likely to be maintained, services are limited, and public transport is inadequate. </p>
<p>Third, relationships are deeply affected by the pressures poverty creates. This is exacerbated by factors such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>low income</li>
<li>punitive conditions placed on welfare recipients (such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/06/single-parents-forced-to-attend-story-time-or-lose-centrelink-payments">needing to attend playgroups and parenting classes</a> or <a href="https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/centrelink-job-seeker-will-change-next-month-heres-why-recipients-are-worried-015017339.html">job interviews</a>)</li>
<li>insecure work</li>
<li>housing stress </li>
<li>unaffordable costs of living. </li>
</ul>
<p>For children, time with the people they love – particularly parents – is always a priority. Poverty eats away at that time.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pressure of poverty eats away at the time children can spend with their parents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/crop-faceless-mom-touching-hand-of-newborn-7282843/">Photo by Sarah Chai/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A culture of shame</h2>
<p>Another, perhaps even more harmful, theme has emerged in Australia over recent decades – the discourse around poverty often attaches blame and stigma to individuals.</p>
<p>Anyone deemed to be part of the “undeserving poor” is shamed. Children experience this in the names targeted at them, their families and communities. Policy settings around welfare can be unbelievably punitive.</p>
<p>As a society, we are diminished by this blaming and shaming rhetoric. It undermines our ability to care for others, and to recognise the value of care.</p>
<h2>6 changes needed now</h2>
<p>There is no quick fix, but here are six changes that would help immediately.</p>
<p><strong>1. Boost welfare benefits</strong></p>
<p>Children in families dependent on working-age benefits will grow up in income poverty. Children in single-parent (usually single mum) families dependent on income support are most likely to be in <a href="https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/poverty/sole-parents-and-unemployed-face-poverty-as-nation-surges-ahead/">poverty</a>. The policy response is clear – we must raise the <a href="https://www.cfecfw.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Social-security-and-time-use-during-COVID-19-Report-Treating-Families-Fairly-2021.pdf">rate of working age benefits</a> and reform the <a href="https://www.austaxpolicy.com/poverty-by-design-how-single-mothers-benefits-are-reduced-without-them-knowing/">child support system</a>.</p>
<p><strong>2. Recognise the importance of strong and supportive relationships</strong></p>
<p>Relationships are crucial to children but undue pressure on parents – through welfare conditions or child-unfriendly, insecure working conditions – undermines those relationships. </p>
<p>Some countries, such as New Zealand, are undertaking <a href="https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/resources/child-impact-assessment.html">child impact assessments</a>, which aim to work out whether a given policy proposal will improve the wellbeing of children and young people. </p>
<p>Australia should do similar assessments of all policies, particularly those linked to social security and labour markets.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Undue pressure on parents undermines relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhouette-of-man-with-children-at-sundown-6008346/">Photo by Maria Lindsey/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>3. Build child-friendly communities</strong></p>
<p>As governments respond to the housing crisis through greater numbers of social housing it is critical we adhere to principles of <a href="https://childfriendlycities.org/">child-friendly communities</a>.</p>
<p>This means providing safe, welcoming places for children to play, building footpaths so children can easily and safely get around, creating communal, child-inclusive spaces to bring people together across generations, and creating child-friendly services close to home.</p>
<p><strong>4. Reform education funding</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-equity-in-schools-look-like-and-how-is-it-tied-to-growing-teacher-shortages-185394">Education funding</a> must be more equitable, and ensure all children can access and enjoy high-quality schooling. </p>
<p><strong>5. Change the narratives and language around poverty</strong></p>
<p>We must recognise poverty is not the fault of the individual. Debates and policies should be based on <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/resource/making-empathy-unconditional-changing-the-story-on-poverty-and-inequality/">empathy, not blame</a>.</p>
<p><strong>6. Put children at the centre of policy</strong></p>
<p>This could include approaches like the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1428&langId=en">European Child Guarantee</a>, which aims to guarantee every child access to essential services. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/attending-school-every-day-counts-but-kids-in-out-of-home-care-are-missing-out-182299">Attending school every day counts – but kids in out-of-home care are missing out</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon Bessell receives funding from The Australian Research Council; Paul Ramsay Foundation. This article is part of The Conversation’s Breaking the Cycle series, which is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p>One 11-year old girl told us she knows once rent is paid, there is almost nothing left over. So she never takes school excursion notes home, in case the cost is too much.Sharon Bessell, Professor of Public Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1805872022-05-24T20:04:59Z2022-05-24T20:04:59ZLow staff turnover, high loyalty and productivity gains: the business benefits of hiring people with intellectual disability<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456036/original/file-20220404-19-1ziypm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C9489%2C6302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are many reasons to employ people living with intellectual disability. Most obvious is that it’s the right thing to do – it helps promote social justice, diversity, corporate social responsibility, and equal opportunity.</p>
<p>Even so, data released in 2020 (the latest available) show just <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/disability-and-labour-force">53.4%</a> of people with disability are in the labour force, compared with 84.1% of people without disability.</p>
<p>The situation is worse for people living with intellectual disability; only <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/disability-and-labour-force#data-download">32%</a> of this group are employed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464210/original/file-20220519-15-4x3c6h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464210/original/file-20220519-15-4x3c6h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464210/original/file-20220519-15-4x3c6h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464210/original/file-20220519-15-4x3c6h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464210/original/file-20220519-15-4x3c6h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464210/original/file-20220519-15-4x3c6h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464210/original/file-20220519-15-4x3c6h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464210/original/file-20220519-15-4x3c6h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Persons aged years a labour force status by disability group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/disability-and-labour-force#data-download">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People living with intellectual disability are ready, willing and able to work.</p>
<p>What employers often don’t realise is that hiring from this oft-neglected segment of the workforce can also bring benefits for business.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-shove-us-off-like-were-rubbish-what-people-with-intellectual-disability-told-us-about-their-local-community-179479">'Don't shove us off like we're rubbish': what people with intellectual disability told us about their local community</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Resilience, perseverance and positive outlook</h2>
<p>The recent Australian television documentary series, <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/employable-me-australia">Employable Me</a>, highlighted the employment difficulties faced by people living with a disability.</p>
<p>It’s hard not to admire the incredible resilience, perseverance and positive outlook of this group.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1388337380508135425"}"></div></p>
<p>Despite these qualities, people living with intellectual disability who want to work <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10926-015-9586-1">face barriers</a> such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>employer attitudes</li>
<li>stigma</li>
<li>preconceived beliefs</li>
<li>discriminatory work practices and </li>
<li>a limited knowledge of their capabilities.</li>
</ul>
<p>It’s true employers may need to make <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/PR-05-2016-0105/full/html">workplace adjustments</a> to accommodate these employees’ needs, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>communicating in pictures rather than words (for example, using signage with symbols to indicate who and what goes where)</li>
<li>breaking tasks down into simple steps</li>
<li>specialised training for workers living with an intellectual disability, as well as supervisors and co-workers. </li>
</ul>
<p>Yes, these changes may represent an initial cost. But research shows the profound benefits of hiring people living with intellectual disabilities, which can include:</p>
<ul>
<li>improvements in <a href="https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-vocational-rehabilitation/jvr521">profitability</a></li>
<li>greater <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1744-7941.12230?casa_token=LX7vgoXjNO8AAAAA%3A-onOwl7cXpz8ML8wCF6-bFNav4599z0TUVZr-TigXNh4kGjjFrBlwY-AguP4dem2L4ghjAQD-newtjkt">cost-effectiveness</a></li>
<li>lower employee <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/236285953?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">turnover</a> </li>
<li>high <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ828953">rates</a> of employee retention, reliability, punctuality, loyalty, and</li>
<li><a href="https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-vocational-rehabilitation/jvr8-1-09">benefits</a> to the company image.</li>
</ul>
<p>The organisations highlighted in such studies include retail organisations, the military, small and medium enterprises, professional services and landscaping.</p>
<p>To achieve such results though, requires employee support, changes to work procedures, flexibility in supervision, and – perhaps most importantly – an open mind.</p>
<h2>‘A massive waste of human resource’</h2>
<p>People living with intellectual disability can and do make a significant <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jar.12558?casa_token=fmR6PyCVwK0AAAAA:LK63YKhGSp7cQKxRlal1jFgc9-jLuBa3O15Mdco3OnVSsoMDWRHN_ie6mr74FsFqnN2MBH_4u2CiCeQ">contributions at work</a> when given the opportunity.</p>
<p>Many tend to be employed part-time, and in segregated settings – often in <a href="https://buy.nsw.gov.au/buyer-guidance/source/select-suppliers/australian-disability-enterprises#:%7E:text=An%20Australian%20disability%20enterprise%20(ADE)%20is%20a%20not%2Dfor,to%20large%20product%20assembly%20lines">Australian disability enterprises</a> or what used to be called “sheltered workshops”.</p>
<p>One of us (Elaine Nash) has been researching the business benefits of employing people living with intellectual disability. The (yet to be published) research has involved interviews with policy makers, leaders, disability advocates, managers, employers, and staff.</p>
<p>One interview was with Professor Richard Bruggemann, a disability advocate and last year’s <a href="https://www.australianoftheyear.com.au/recipients/richard-bruggemann/2273/">South Australia Senior Australian of the year</a>. He described the low labour force participation rate of people living with an intellectual disability as “a massive waste of human resource”. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People living with intellectual disability are ready, willing, and able to make a difference to organisations beyond the traditional sheltered workshop setting. All they need is an opportunity to do so.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bruggemann’s observations are supported by international <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638288.2019.1570356">research</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10926-018-9756-z">about</a> workers living with intellectual disability. Many <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638288.2019.1570356">studies</a> have called for a whole-of-government approach to boost employment rates in this cohort. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464191/original/file-20220519-17-cib5rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464191/original/file-20220519-17-cib5rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464191/original/file-20220519-17-cib5rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464191/original/file-20220519-17-cib5rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464191/original/file-20220519-17-cib5rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464191/original/file-20220519-17-cib5rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464191/original/file-20220519-17-cib5rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464191/original/file-20220519-17-cib5rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many studies have called for a whole-of-government approach to boost employment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making it happen</h2>
<p>Employing people living with intellectual disability won’t always be suitable. </p>
<p>It is not a silver bullet for corporate success, higher efficiency, or greater profits. But in some settings, it may help <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/13668250.2017.1379250?casa_token=8wLN2zFs25sAAAAA%253AmB2jcCrnwhndFhnRyFmco8dc0PMAUhDUOIdzJyn0ZFkXoKwnmzZs-v7hZIsl7mOXS54-maTObIKI">address problems</a> that have been concerning employers. </p>
<p>As Simon Rowberry, CEO of <a href="https://www.barkuma.com.au/">Barkuma</a> (a not-for-profit that supports people with disability) told us in an interview:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are costs and benefits in any employment decision. Incorporating workers living with intellectual disability into your workforce is no different. Preparation, understanding what the upsides as well as the downsides are, and a need to be flexible are non-negotiables.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps the most critical success factor is a genuine desire to make it happen. Where there’s a will, there’s usually a way.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/employable-me-has-struck-a-chord-but-will-it-change-employers-attitudes-to-disability-94903">Employable Me has struck a chord but will it change employers' attitudes to disability?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180587/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elaine Nash used to work with Professor Richard Bruggemann when he was CEO of Intellectual Disability Services Council (IDSC). This story is part of The Conversation's Breaking the Cycle series, which is about escaping cycles of disadvantage. It is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Basil Tucker received funding from Accounting and Finance Association Australian and New Zealand (AFAANZ) for this project.</span></em></p>Research shows there can be profound business benefits to hiring people living with intellectual disability.Elaine Nash, PhD Candidate, University of South AustraliaBasil Tucker, Senior Lecturer in Management Accounting, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770112022-03-01T13:37:19Z2022-03-01T13:37:19ZThe tech industry talks about boosting diversity, but research shows little improvement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448642/original/file-20220225-31520-1x1aam3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C29%2C6617%2C4368&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Increased diversity has eluded the tech industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/happy-business-people-having-discussion-during-royalty-free-image/961035664">Cavan Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. tech sector is growing 10 times faster and has wages twice as high as the rest of the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-7/high-tech-industries-an-analysis-of-employment-wages-and-output.htm">economy</a>. This industry also wins the race for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/why-does-the-stock-market-keep-going-up/543249">high profits and stock returns</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, the tech sector’s professional, managerial and executive labor forces are overwhelmingly <a href="https://www.umass.edu/employmentequity/silicon-valley-tech-diversity-possible-now-0">white and male</a>. </p>
<p>It is not surprising, then, that the field is under a great deal of <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/special-report/diversity-high-tech">pressure to diversify its labor force</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6IIFqigAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers who</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ibvubfoAAAAJ&hl=en">study inequality</a>, we examined the data to go beyond the picture of diversity in the tech sector as a whole. In our most <a href="https://www.umass.edu/employmentequity/tech-sector-diversity-improving">recent research</a>, we looked at which types of tech firms increased their workforce diversity, by how much and for which groups of people. What we found surprised us.</p>
<p>Our research used machine learning techniques and firm-level data on employment diversity for 6,163 tech firms employing 2,582,342 workers. We used a <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/clustering-in-machine-learning/">clustering algorithm</a> to identify groups of firms with similar changes in diversity between 2008 and 2016. </p>
<p>We focused in particular on professional jobs – the programmers, engineers and designers who are the core source of innovation in the sector. We also looked at the managers and executives responsible for human resource practices. We don’t identify specific firms because this data was originally collected by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and our ability to analyze it requires strict confidentiality. </p>
<h2>Diversity trajectories</h2>
<p>We found that 80% of firms displayed a pattern of very minimal increases in diversity in their professional labor force, primarily driven by small increases in the employment of Asian men and Asian women, with declines among non-Asian women and no change among other minority men. We also found that this widespread pattern reflects much slower movement toward employment diversity in this sector than in the rest of the U.S. labor force. </p>
<p>Our findings for the remaining 20% of firms surprised us. We found some firms with rapid increases in diversity among professional jobs, and others where diversity declined substantially. In about 10% of firms, we found rapid increases in the proportion of white male professionals, in most the percentage of women fell, but in some, mainly Asian men were displaced. This latter small group of firms also saw growth in all other groups, even Asian women. This pattern permitted white male dominance at the expense of Asian men while making room for all other groups. </p>
<p><iframe id="3CbrH" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3CbrH/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>More hopefully, we observed a rapid growth in diversity of the technical labor force in two types of firms. In both, the percentage of white men declined by about a quarter. In the larger of these two groups, about 7% of tech sector firms, white male professionals were primarily replaced with white and Asian women, although Hispanic and Black men and women saw gains as well. The second group of firms was smaller, representing only 2% of tech firms. In these, white men were replaced by Asian men and Asian women, while all other groups declined as well. </p>
<p>We found similar patterns at the managerial and executive levels. Most firms showed little change, but there were small groups with rapid increases in diversity, and others with rapid decreases. </p>
<p>White male executives declined across the sector by 5.9%, and we discovered significant increases in the representation of all other groups, even Hispanic women, in the top jobs. It appears that the most common tech response to the pressure to increase diversity was to move more women and minorities into executive positions. This pattern has been described <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo19910067.html">in previous research</a> as being primarily a defensive response to diversity demands rather than a commitment to promoting employment diversity.</p>
<h2>When do firms become more inclusive?</h2>
<p>We also wanted to figure out which types of firms showed a pattern of rapidly increased diversity. Here we have two more hopeful findings. </p>
<p>Firms where professional diversity was growing rapidly also tended to be among those with rapid overall employment growth. Diversity looks to be good for business – or perhaps innovative, well-run businesses are better at hiring more diverse labor forces.</p>
<p>We wondered whether increased diversity among managers who do the hiring and executives who set the tone was associated with having a rapidly diversifying professional labor force. Here we found that those firms with strong increases in managerial diversity also tended to embrace strong increases in professional diversity. In contrast, strong increases in executive diversity did not reliably raise the chances that a firm would have strong diversity growth among its core professional labor force. </p>
<h2>Window dressing or diversity now?</h2>
<p>It looks to us as though the recipe for increasing diversity in the tech sector is at least in part to increase diversity at the managerial level. It also looks like increased diversity is good for business, although it is also possible that well-run firms hire more diverse labor forces. Unfortunately, this combination is not widespread. Dramatic improvements in employment diversity are confined to only 10% of firms.</p>
<p>We believe that most of the technology industry is stuck in a low-inclusion rut, and a disturbing set of firms are moving backward. However, a handful of firms demonstrate that diversity is possible now.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey receives funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>JooHee Han does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most tech sector firms are stuck in a low- inclusion rut, and a disturbing set of firms are moving backward. A handful of firms, however, demonstrate that diversity now is possible.Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Employment Equity, UMass AmherstJooHee Han, Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology, University of OsloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1162802019-06-20T19:59:55Z2019-06-20T19:59:55ZFriday essay: diversity in the media is vital - but Australia has a long way to go<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280122/original/file-20190619-118535-kibqmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michelle Guthrie in 2018: the former ABC managing director made greater staff diversity a top priority. But her final Equity and Diversity annual report failed to meet several long-held targets.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Walkley Foundation’s inaugural <a href="https://www.walkleys.com/awards/media-diversity-australia-award/">Media Diversity Australia award</a> will be announced on June 26, and has had an impressive number of entries for what was once regarded as a niche area.</p>
<p>Diversity in the media is no longer just about minorities; it is well and truly a mainstream issue. Streaming company <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-netflix-inclusion-20180829-story.html">Netflix </a> has appointed an executive to oversee its diversity and inclusion strategy. British media companies like The Financial Times, The Telegraph and Sky <a href="https://digiday.com/media/think-silver-bullet-uk-publishers-hiring-diversity-execs/">are following suit</a>. </p>
<p>As we face a growing tide of unregulated hate speech, the role of the media is crucial in normalising diversity and demolishing the “othering” of difference that divides us. So how is the Australian media faring in the diversity stakes?</p>
<p>Last year, the <a href="https://www.sdin.com.au/diversity/">Screen Diversity Inclusion Network</a> (SDIN) introduced an inaugural award for producers and projects delivering diverse storytelling. It went to Ned Lander Media for the first Australian Indigenous animated children’s series “<a href="https://www.if.com.au/little-j-and-big-cuz-wins-sdin-award/">Little J and Big Cuz</a>”, broadcast on NITV and ABC.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/okYpoflOqao?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The screen diversity network represents the peak commercial network body FreeTV as well as the public broadcasters and national and state screen funding bodies; all 22 members have signed a <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2017/08-01-media-organisations-sign-diversity-charter">charter</a> to promote diversity. </p>
<p>SDIN spokeswoman Georgie McClean says things are changing. Network Ten and Screen Australia’s <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2019/03-25-network-10-screen-australia-out-here">“Out Here” initiative</a>, for instance, supports filmmakers with funds to make documentaries on LGBTQI+ communities in regional and rural Australia. </p>
<p>The Nine Network’s Today Show is fronted by two women; its entertainment reporter is Indigenous journalist Brooke Boney, and Syrian-born Sara Abo is a journalist on 60 Minutes. Channel Seven was recently given an <a href="https://pressroom.mipcom.com/press-release-en-2019/mipcom-diversify-tv-excellence-awards-2018and-the-winners-are-1017-680">international TV Excellence award </a>for its portrayal of LGBTQ issues on Home and Away. It has also promoted female directors. </p>
<p>But there is still much work to be done in the journalistic sphere. <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-how-australias-newsrooms-are-failing-minority-communities-104569">Recent research </a> by Deakin University academics, for instance, found that more than a third of media articles reflected negative views of minority communities. </p>
<p>The Media Diversity award will honour reporting that is nuanced enough to alter perceptions and attitudes, challenge stereotypes and fight misinformation. (The <a href="https://www.walkleys.com/2019-walkley-mid-year-celebration-finalists-announced/">finalists</a> are all ABC journalists). The Walkley Foundation created the award with the assistance of a non-profit organisation called <a href="https://www.mediadiversityaustralia.org/">Media Diversity Australia</a>, set up by two ex-ABC employees, Isabel Lo and Antoinette Lattouf. </p>
<p>“It’s not a ‘brown award for brown people’ because all journalists irrespective of background have a responsibility to be fair and balanced in the often complex area of culture and disability reporting,” said Lattouf, director of the organisation and a senior reporter with Channel 10.</p>
<p>Media Diversity Australia has begun a diversity audit of free to air journalism across all Australian networks. From morning television to late night current affairs, it will interview content makers and senior editorial staff. The research will be carried out by several academics, including former Race Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane. As Latouff explains: “The academics will then draw on international comparisons and evaluate strategies that have worked abroad in places like Canada and the United Kingdom and America and make suggestions for local media outlets.”</p>
<p>So how much catching up has Australia got to do? Deborah Williams is the executive director of the UK’s Creative Diversity Network, which works to improve representation in the United Kingdom. Recently, she was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/speakingout/deborah-williams/10975694">asked this question </a> by Professor Larissa Behrendt on ABC Radio. </p>
<p>Australia, she replied, “is where the UK was 20 years ago”. Both women then erupted into embarrassed giggles, agreeing there was still work to be done.</p>
<h2>The importance of empathy</h2>
<p>That diversity is <a href="https://www.pwc.com.au/press-room/2016/media-outlook-jun16.html">good for business</a> is well documented. Advertising campaigns now regularly feature diverse faces and blended families. But the media has an important role in reflecting difference and eliciting empathy for those from diverse backgrounds. </p>
<p>When the Easter Sri Lankan suicide bombings devastated a country that had only just emerged from a 30-year civil war, the world was shocked. But incredibly, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/sri-lanka-why-do-we-care-more-about-notre-dame/11039992">according to Google Trends,</a> there was up to nine times more search interest in the Paris Notre Dame fire than there was for the Christian dead in Sri Lanka within 24 hours of each event. </p>
<p>ABC journalist Avani Dias <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/sri-lanka-why-do-we-care-more-about-notre-dame/11039992">wrote a moving oped</a> challenging our deficit of empathy for the victims of this bombing. “You may have also been at an Easter service or celebrating the holiday with your family,” she wrote. “This is relatable. … Maybe you haven’t travelled to Sri Lanka - it’s true that fewer Australians travel there than France - but all of this is relatable. All of this should be close to home.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279961/original/file-20190618-118535-1c8duus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279961/original/file-20190618-118535-1c8duus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279961/original/file-20190618-118535-1c8duus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279961/original/file-20190618-118535-1c8duus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279961/original/file-20190618-118535-1c8duus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279961/original/file-20190618-118535-1c8duus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279961/original/file-20190618-118535-1c8duus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279961/original/file-20190618-118535-1c8duus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Relatives and friends bury the victims of a series of bomb blasts at cemetery Don David Katuwapitiya in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 23 April 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">M.A. Pushpa Kumara/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Relatability and empathy is <a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/journalism_and_the_power_of_emotions.php">what makes storytelling powerful</a>.
<a href="https://9now.nine.com.au/today/brooke-boney/0bc4bd16-8a55-4285-8339-22385df54abf">Brooke Boney</a> is a young Gamilaroi Gomeroi woman who moved from morning radio on ABC Triple J’s Hack to Channel Nine’s Today Show. Within days of starting work there, she had made an impact. </p>
<p>For a moment, last January, I thought I was watching SBS when presenter Deborah Knight declared “we are a country with a diversity of cultures” and then threw to Boney for her thoughts on the significance of Australia Day. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yrg2gRp8Q28?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>“I can’t separate the 26th of January with the fact that my brothers are more likely to go to jail than they are to school,” said Boney. “Or that my little sister or my mum are more likely to be beaten and raped than anyone else’s sisters or mum. And that started from that day. So, for me it’s a difficult day and I don’t want to celebrate it … That is the day that it changed for us. What some people would say is the end. That’s the turning point. </p>
<p>The audience got a measured, normalised discussion and a dose of empathy. Co-host Georgie Gardner finished with, "Thank you for the insight Brooke”. And at breakfast tables across the country, a conversation was started.</p>
<h2>Pigeonholing</h2>
<p>The ABC should be commended for its work in hiring and training journalists like Boney and Dias, but it has a problem retaining them. </p>
<p>Media Diversity Australia has been conducting workshops in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and surveying former ABC staff of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Chair Isabel Lo says there is dissatisfaction in how some are treated at the national broadcaster. </p>
<p>One experienced reporter, she says, was often mistaken for a cadet or work experience junior. “They often feel pigeon-holed when it comes to stories they are enlisted to cover or when their opinion is sought.”</p>
<p>The ABC has had various programs in place aimed at achieving diversity in staff and content. Several years ago, there was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whose-australian-stories-cultural-diversity-at-the-abc-29481">Diversity Action Group</a>. That was disbanded and there is now a Diversity and Inclusion Standing Committee. It has series of interconnecting groups containing heads of departments at the top, who work across and down to diversity “champions”. </p>
<p>These are people representing women, Indigenous, disabled and LGBTIQ employees and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The champions are often consulted on broadcasting content issues relating to diversity.</p>
<p>But Isabel Lo says this can inadvertently lead to pigeonholing. “One reporter was continually referred to as Chinese and asked about Chinese New Year and for Mandarin translations, despite repeatedly telling them that is not where the individual’s family hails from, they are in fact Vietnamese.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280131/original/file-20190619-118514-177r6e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280131/original/file-20190619-118514-177r6e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280131/original/file-20190619-118514-177r6e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280131/original/file-20190619-118514-177r6e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280131/original/file-20190619-118514-177r6e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280131/original/file-20190619-118514-177r6e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280131/original/file-20190619-118514-177r6e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280131/original/file-20190619-118514-177r6e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrants from Vietnam wait for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to arrive at a multicultural event at Koondoola, north of Perth, in April.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Done badly, diversity policies can backfire. According to <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/ex-broadcaster-trevor-phillips-claims-uk-media-diversity-efforts-have-been-tokenistic/">former UK broadcaster Trevor Phillips</a>, some efforts at diversity are “tokenistic” with many television stations “self-congratulating their efforts”. </p>
<p>Quoted in the Press Gazette, he said a lack of diversity at the top of the industry had led to “big mistakes”. </p>
<p>“Our efforts, I would be generous to describe them as tokenistic. The gap between the self-estimation in this field and its actual reality is probably wider than in any other sector I know.” </p>
<p>He said policy is driven by fear of being seen to be racist rather than actually facilitating equality of opportunity.</p>
<h2>Is the ABC meeting its own diversity targets?</h2>
<p>When Michelle Guthrie <a href="https://theconversation.com/michelle-guthrie-should-look-to-uk-and-reality-tv-to-achieve-a-more-diverse-abc-58931">took over</a> from Mark Scott as ABC managing director, she made a commitment to diversity a top priority. Speaking in <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/speeches/abc-news-dexterity-diversity-and-collaboration/">October 2016</a>, she stressed that diversity is key to relevance.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have driven this issue hard in my first six months at the ABC. Not because as a daughter of Chinese Australian parents I can claim some sort of moral superiority on the issue. But it is because the ABC Board and I fervently believe that the national broadcaster can only truly reflect cultural diversity if it lives it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But at the time of her departure three years later, her final <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ABC-ED-Annual-Report-2017-2018.pdf">Equity and Diversity Annual Report</a> had failed to meet several long-held targets.</p>
<p>While targets for a required percentage of employees across the board to be women and Indigenous employees were met, the percentage of senior executive roles occupied by those from non-English speaking backgrounds fell to 10.2% (despite a target of 15%). Meanwhile, the percentage of content makers from a non-English speaking background rose marginally from 8.7% to 9% - well short of the 12% target. </p>
<p>The percentage of employees with disabilities - across the board - actually fell from 7% to 5.7%. </p>
<p>While the ABC publishes its diversity figures online, all other free to air television stations were also contacted for information on their diverse hires. Either none was available or emails were not returned.</p>
<p>After three email requests, SBS sent a response that was too late to be analysed properly for this publication. An SBS spokesman said 51% of employees speak a language other than English at home and 44% were born overseas. However, these figures also include the specialist language radio programs. The overall figure for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees is 4%, but this includes NITV.
14% of employees identify as being members of the LGBTIQ community and SBS took home brand of the year for the third year in a row at the LGBTI Awards. </p>
<p>I sent a list of questions to the ABC seeking a response to its diversity figures and to Media Diversity Australia’s claims about the pigeonholing of employees from culturally diverse backgrounds. An ABC spokesperson said having a diverse workforce is a strategic priority and a standing agenda item at every leadership team and board meeting. Said the spokeswoman:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is clearly more work to do to achieve our goals and targets – particularly in relation to cultural diversity. Its disappointing the diversity measures we have in place haven’t yet had more of an impact on the representation of cultural diversity in our content making teams and that we fell short in our targets for the representation of NESB employees in our workforce.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280132/original/file-20190619-118514-d2nquj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280132/original/file-20190619-118514-d2nquj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280132/original/file-20190619-118514-d2nquj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280132/original/file-20190619-118514-d2nquj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280132/original/file-20190619-118514-d2nquj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280132/original/file-20190619-118514-d2nquj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280132/original/file-20190619-118514-d2nquj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280132/original/file-20190619-118514-d2nquj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ABC: more work to be done in representing cultural diversity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ABC endured debilitating funding cuts during Guthrie’s tenure, with an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-abc-didnt-receive-a-reprieve-in-the-budget-its-still-facing-staggering-cuts-114922">estimated accumulated reduction of $393 million</a> over five years. The spokesperson says external pressures such as a climate of budget cuts and hiring freezes have affected the ABC’s ability to meet its diversity targets.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Following the most recent headcount freeze, initiated in early July 2018, the number of jobs advertised externally dropped from 64% (in the second quarter) to 28% (in the third quarter) reducing the opportunity to pursue our diversity targets through external recruitment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Research worldwide <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/26/success/layoffs-women-minorities/index.html">shows that</a> when budgets are cut, so are diverse hires. </p>
<p>Isabel Lo agrees. Working under the spectre of austerity is “stressful at the best of times,” she says, but tends to penalise those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. “They are arguably the newer and more junior hires on short-term contracts, easily expendable when making budget cuts.”</p>
<p>The ABC is facing more cuts, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/abc-warns-tough-decisions-will-need-to-be-made-on-staffing-and-services-in-wake-of-budget/news-story/940d5ab717d2b38c09c582a23f7e4170">according to</a> managing Director David Anderson, and this does not bode well for diversity. This week he flagged <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/abc-boss-to-push-for-more-diversity-of-views-among-panel-show-guests-20190616-p51y7k.html">prioritising a diversity of political views</a> among panel show guests. </p>
<p>ABC Chair Ita Buttrose has already highlighted the need for an ABC board with relevant media experience. But what has never been achieved, and arguably is needed more than ever, is a board that reflects the diversity of Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Vatsikopoulos is affiliated with ABC Alumni</span></em></p>As we face a growing tide of unregulated hate speech, the media is crucial in normalising diversity. Yet progress here has been slow. Even the ABC has failed to meet some of its own targets for hiring a diversity of employees.Helen Vatsikopoulos, Lecturer in Journalism, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1038882018-10-29T19:11:35Z2018-10-29T19:11:35ZExpecting autistic people to ‘fit in’ is cruel and unproductive; value us for our strengths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242207/original/file-20181025-71045-1v8ddns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It takes all sorts: workplaces can harness as strengths the differences that usually disadvantage people with autism.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just 16% of adults with autism are in full-time paid employment, and this situation is not improving. The Economist has described this as “<a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2016/04/16/beautiful-minds-wasted">a tragic toll</a>, as millions of people live idle and isolated outside the world of work”.</p>
<p>When people with autism do get a job, they face bullying, discrimination and isolation <a href="https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/tmi/employment.aspx">in the workplace</a>.</p>
<p>I know the harsh reality from personal experience. Who better to research and write about productivity and employment outcomes than someone who has experienced autism and 40 years of competitive employment?</p>
<p>Autism is a lifelong phenomenon. It’s in the genes. <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-study-finds-common-link-across-autism-spectrum-disorders-68974">It will never go away</a>. </p>
<p>At school I was called retard, crazy horse and other stupid names. Even worse, I was expelled eight times. Teachers did not understand that I could not identify non-verbal cues to behaviour. That I needed to move and to run to cope. That I spoke loudly and was perfectly clear about my perspective with teachers and peers but could not reciprocate appropriately in school interactions. </p>
<p>I found school tasks based on rote learning very challenging. I had difficulty processing sound information. I could concentrate for long periods on tasks of interest to me, but was unable to respond to teacher cues about where to direct my attention. I was punished repeatedly without really knowing why. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-should-never-assume-anything-about-people-with-autism-37776">Why you should never assume anything about people with autism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But my mother never gave up on me. Time after time she found another school so I could continue my education. Thank you, Mum. You are the greatest.</p>
<p>These school expulsions traumatised me so much that I vowed never to let a workplace terminate me. When a job was not working out, I quit and found another – 28 times in 27 years. </p>
<p>Then, at age 47 I found a job I held for 15 years, until I retired.</p>
<p>These experiences have informed my research into strategies to improve employment rates and work enjoyment for other people with autism. </p>
<h2>Focus on strengths, not deficits</h2>
<p>Mainstream psychiatry frames autism as a spectrum of disorders. Really? Do we have to act like somebody else to be judged normal? </p>
<p>Laurent Mottron, a psychiatry professor at the University of Montreal, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5489637/pdf/787_2017_Article_955.pdf">argues</a> against a “deficit-based” approach to children with autism. The premise is that “treatment” should change them, make them conform, suppress their repetitive behaviours and moderate their “obsessive” interests. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-our-autistic-ancestors-played-an-important-role-in-human-evolution-73477">How our autistic ancestors played an important role in human evolution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This approach, Mottron says, has done nothing to improve employment outcomes for people with autism. </p>
<p>In my own case, attempts by teachers and work managers to make me behave “normally” often just triggered my autism. My reactions at school led to expulsions. At work I would quit. </p>
<p>So I agree with Mottron and others autism researchers that want to move beyond studying autism as a deficit and to emphasise the abilities and strengths of people with it. </p>
<h2>It’s the key to high productivity</h2>
<p>Part of the economic rationale for funding Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is based on the scheme <a href="https://www.ndis.gov.au/bruce-speech-what-why-who-market">leading to productivity gains</a> by increasing people’s independence and participation in the workforce. The whole scheme will be compromised if we fail to promote better productivity and employment outcomes for people with autism, who make up <a href="https://www.ndis.gov.au/medias/documents/coag-report-q4-y5-full/2018-Q4-June-COAG-report-Full.pdf">29% of participants</a> in the scheme with approved plans.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8SS8X/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="480"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>Research by the <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236561/employees-strengths-outperform-don.aspx?utm_source=link_wwwv9&utm_campaign=item_235823&utm_medium=copy">Gallup Organisation</a> shows people who use their strengths every day are 8% more productive and 15% less likely to quit their jobs, six times more likely to be engaged at work, and are three times more likely to report an excellent quality of life. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/0AdvL/4/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="550"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>Performance reviews that emphasise personal strengths improve organisational performance. Singling out people with autism by focusing on their deficits alone does not make sense.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Hz4DB/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<hr>
<h2>Connecting personal insights</h2>
<p>My academic method is auto-ethnographic – involving deep reflection on my personal experiences over a lifetime of living with autism and connecting this experience to wider cultural, political and social understanding.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/autistic-academics-give-their-thoughts-on-university-life-72133">Autistic academics give their thoughts on university life</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Three key insights for enhancing employment outcomes have emerged. </p>
<ul>
<li>First, enable strengths. Build on employee knowledge, skills and willingness to engage meaningfully and productively at work. </li>
</ul>
<p>For example, providing a predictable structure and routine and the chance to contribute and plan for change enabled my strengths as a sales consultant to benefit the organisation. Those strengths included being goal-focused, persistent, analytical, logical and free from the restrictions of procedure others took for granted.</p>
<ul>
<li>Second, treat every individual as an asset to grow and retain. </li>
</ul>
<p>This idea builds on the theory of <a href="http://forschungsnetzwerk.at/downloadpub/knowledge_workers_the_biggest_challenge.pdf">knowledge-worker productivity</a> proposed by Peter Drucker, the father of modern management. An employer can define a worker’s job tasks but should allow the knowledge worker to work out how to do a task most efficiently.</p>
<p>In my case, I compensated for a lack of neuro-typical social skills by convincing management to give me autonomy because I created value for the business. This strategy proved its worth in my final, and by far longest, period of employment.</p>
<ul>
<li>Third, be aware of and avoid autism triggers. </li>
</ul>
<p>These triggers, however trivial they may seem to others, can set off acute stress reactions. Triggers include unexpected and unexplained changes to routines and expectations, interactions involving implied but ironic criticism, casual off-the-cuff negative feedback, and visual or auditory distraction during periods of stress.</p>
<p>In my final workplace, for example, my managers and I used a mediator to avoid confrontations over work issues that would have been too stressful. As a result I could circumvent the pressures that had previously led me to resign. </p>
<h2>The verdict</h2>
<p>The hallmark of an enlightened society should be its level of inclusion. Wanting to change a person’s autistic behaviours is like attempting to correct left-handedness or sexual preference. It is cruel, unnatural and doomed to fail. It does not foster inclusion but emphasises exclusion.</p>
<p>We can change the significant social and employment disadvantage experienced by people with autism by seeing their assets rather than their liabilities. By rethinking their management attitudes and practices, workplaces can harness as strengths and advantages the attributes that usually disadvantage people with autism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Sun San Wong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Wanting to change a person’s autistic behaviours is like attempting to correct left-handedness or sexual preference. The modern workplace should see strength in difference.Peter Sun San Wong, Researcher, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/452002015-07-26T19:29:12Z2015-07-26T19:29:12ZHow can we fulfill the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89721/original/image-20150726-8442-168hgd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Americans with Disability Act helped end many barriers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/iip-photo-archive/19149518855/in/photolist-vbbhNc-cGZrMQ-rem5Wt-sb9zZ4-rTyjnE-re9vp1-rTzum7-s8RJEY-sb1a5Y-sb19AS-rTzueo-rRPB4B-sb6yci-rRPAJZ-rTzvxA-sb1a95-rem5EM-rTGnNc-sb9ztK-sb9ACP-rTyjj3-rTzvqw-rTymod-rTztBw-sb1ah1-s8RKs9-rem596-sb6yqz-v96SrM-8n1RJP-ucoign-ud9o5x-77EeRY-ahX8rE-6N1eiS-6ykZd5-vaESBb-7ej1vf-e9WyKX-uTAfqf-fuTjL6-fv8CaW-8pMEyY-8pMECm-8pMEeL-8pMEFd-8pMEum-8pMEKy-8pMERU-8pMETY">IIP Photo Archive</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In July 1990, President George H W Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2319149">into law</a> in an action that “gave voice to the nation’s highest ideals.” </p>
<p>As we celebrate 25 years of ADA, we can see the significance of this law. The ADA challenged discrimination and helped remove many barriers, so people with disabilities could lead independent lives.</p>
<p>Today, there are <a href="http://www.census.gov/people/disability/publications/sipp2010.html">roughly 56.7 million Americans</a>, comprising 19% of the civilian population, with some form of disability, who are able to participate in mainstream society.</p>
<p><a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED520976">More than 700,000 students</a> are enrolled in American public and private colleges and universities with documented disabilities including dyslexia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), sensory and mobility issues, mental illness, and health impairments. </p>
<p>But what is important to note is that the <a href="http://www.ada.gov/pubs/adastatute08.htm">promise of ADA</a> cannot be fulfilled unless those without disabilities act on its “clear, strong, consistent and enforceable standards.” </p>
<p>In my work as an experienced special educator, I have observed allies for people with disabilities across the country among students, faculty and administrators who recognize their role in fulfilling this promise. </p>
<p>So how are they advocating for people with disabilities on their college campuses? They are creating change by sponsoring inclusive organizations, teaching to specific learning needs and making campus policies more equitable. </p>
<h2>A proclamation of emancipation</h2>
<p>The ADA was brought in to ensure that people with disabilities get equal opportunities to fully participate in all aspects of community life, to live independently and to achieve economic self-sufficiency through the removal of barriers that prevent their meaningful inclusion in American life. </p>
<p>The ADA builds on 20 years of disability-specific legislation to eliminate the historic and pervasive isolation and segregation of Americans with disabilities. Before that, they were viewed as objects of pity, unable to work, go to school or live on their own. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89722/original/image-20150726-8451-11x3263.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89722/original/image-20150726-8451-11x3263.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89722/original/image-20150726-8451-11x3263.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89722/original/image-20150726-8451-11x3263.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89722/original/image-20150726-8451-11x3263.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89722/original/image-20150726-8451-11x3263.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89722/original/image-20150726-8451-11x3263.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ADA helped remove pervasive isolation and segregation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nycstreets/19105354964/in/photolist-v7gWpN-vLMH2n-v7pBwk-vLEaqj-w3EeH5-w4FGRV-w1Yx1b-w1Ya69-w4FYDM-vLMiUv-vLE1C9-vLDYaJ-v7qP22-vLMjXn-v7hn7J-vLFJFh-w3E34d-w1YUm7-w3D7uE-w4gPEM-vLDYHC-w4i6Ng-v7pLx6-vLDYT7-vLNTvr-w4Fjq2-vLNnbP-w3DEUj-vLDZHo-w4hNgT-vLEBpd-w3DzJE-w4FSvp-w4FHfa-w4Froa-v7fMoo-w1Z18s-w4FGiF-w4htJ2-vLDWsh-w4GeNV-w3Dr5W-v7phrX-w4ic4M-vLEaHo-vLMvwP-vLMhDp-w4FPSD-vLDZeh-v7qMW6">New York City Department of Transportation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ADA <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2319175">altered</a> this view by making buildings, transportation and services change so people with disabilities could participate. </p>
<p>Former Senator Tom Harkin, the chief sponsor of the ADA in Congress, referred to the law as the “20th century emancipation proclamation for people with disabilities.”</p>
<p>In 2008, new amendments to the ADA broadened the standard used to define a disability and extended protections to individuals with substantial limitations in a variety of major life activities including reading, concentrating and working. </p>
<p>The amendments also extended protections to those using a variety of supports such as cochlear implants, hearing aids and prosthetics. </p>
<p>In short, the ADA is not just about people with disabilities; it is <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aehe.2013.39.issue-5/issuetoc">about society at large</a>. Ensuring equity, access and inclusion is a shared responsibility.</p>
<h2>What has changed on campus</h2>
<p>So, how are some of these changes reflected in today’s society? I see this every day on our campus: students and faculty using wheelchairs, accessible e-readers for those with low vision, sign language interpreters and other technologies that allow people to learn and to work. </p>
<p>As an instructor, I get help from the campus disability resource center to make sure I provide reasonable instructional accommodations in my classes, such as repeating or clarifying directions, or providing a note-taker, to students who need them. </p>
<p>Today’s undergraduates grew up in a post-ADA world where people with disabilities are expected to be included in, not segregated from, campus life. Many attended elementary and secondary schools alongside students with disabilities. </p>
<p>They are used to interacting in classes, clubs and community activities with friends and peers whose disabilities are just a part of life. </p>
<p>Early experiences have prepared these young adults to interact with increasing numbers of people with disabilities on campus. About 11% of <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED520976">college students</a> have documented disabilities. Their full-time enrollment grew by 45% and part-time enrollment by 26% between 2000 and 2010. There are also about <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1004364">250,000 higher education faculty members</a> who have disabilities. </p>
<p>College leaders <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aehe.20011/abstract">use strategies</a> such as universal design and disability education to prevent discrimination against students and employees. </p>
<p>The concept of universal design means making things accessible and desirable to as many people as possible. For example, curb-cuts in the sidewalk were made for wheelchair users, but are used by everyone. </p>
<p>Architects use <a href="http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/acuho/journal_vol39no2/index.php?startid=135#/160">principles of universal design</a> in building dormitories, classrooms and labs.</p>
<p>Universal design <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aehe.20011/abstract">also applies</a> to curriculum materials and teaching methods, such as presenting content and encouraging students to participate and respond to instruction in a variety of ways.</p>
<p>Programs in disability education and disability studies <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aehe.20011/abstract">promote</a> campus awareness about the experiences of people with disabilities and advocacy for social change. Courses can be taken at most universities to reduce the stigma still associated with disabilities. </p>
<p>On my campus at the University of Florida, students from different fields, including business, design, engineering, nursing, education, prelaw and medicine, enroll in the Disabilities in Society minor so they will be prepared to interact successfully with future coworkers, customers and neighbors with disabilities. </p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>However, despite these 25 years of advocacy, for many Americans with disabilities, equity and inclusion are still out of reach. And more needs to be done to fulfill the promise of the law. </p>
<p>Stigma and stereotypes are still perpetuated on college campuses, where <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED520976.pdf">students with disabilities</a> tend to leave school after two years and graduate at half the rate of their classmates. They are also employed <a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf">at half the rate</a> of workers their own age who do not have disabilities. </p>
<p>Up to now, the most common experience of people with disabilities has been discrimination. Perhaps the <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2319175">greatest success</a> of the ADA would be that discrimination would no longer be a shared experience in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Crockett has received funding from the US Department of Education. She is affiliated as a volunteer with The Viscardi Center, a non-profit organization in Albertson, NY.</span></em></p>The Americans with Disabilities Act turned 25 on July 26. Some of the changes that it ushered in are reflected every day on our campuses, through technologies that allow people to learn and to work.Jean Crockett, Professor and Director of the School of Special Education, School Psychology, & Early Childhood Studies, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/434072015-07-19T20:12:19Z2015-07-19T20:12:19ZWhy equality of opportunity is neither possible nor desirable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85843/original/image-20150622-3374-1p5xoyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most of us can't bend it like Beckham, for various reasons. But is that necessarily the worst thing?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Ben Nelms</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equal-opportunity/">dominant Western idea</a> of equality opposes caste systems but not hierarchy. As American political philosopher Richard Arneson says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When equality of opportunity prevails, the assignment of places in the hierarchy is determined by some form of competitive process, and all members of society are eligible to compete on equal terms.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This idea is <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/documents/downloads/DP85.pdf">supported</a> by Australia’s Labor and Liberal parties and captured by the beloved <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/australians-value-a-fair-go-highest/2006/11/11/1162661949374.html">“fair go”</a> slogan.</p>
<p>But this ideal is not possible – nor is it desirable.</p>
<h2>Formal equality of opportunity</h2>
<p>One <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2379968?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">understanding</a> of equality of opportunity is that it only requires legal equality, which is realised when everyone is treated equally before the law. This is referred to as formal equality of opportunity. </p>
<p>British philosopher Bernard Williams <a href="http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511621253&cid=CBO9780511621253A020">offered</a> a useful rejoinder to this claim. He asks us to think of a society comprised of two groups, A and B. Group A has enjoyed long-standing unfair advantages and consequently its members hold most positions of power and prestige. Thankfully, egalitarian reformers see the injustice of this and change the law to ensure open competition for all positions of influence. </p>
<p>Williams suggests that members of group A will continue to dominate because they still have massive advantages due to their previous legal – and current social and economic – privileges. Formal equality of opportunity might solve one problem – if we assume financial clout does not provide any legal advantage – but it leaves many others unaddressed. </p>
<p>As Arneson says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The ideal of formal equality of opportunity has limited scope. Its sphere of application is public life, not private life.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Substantive equality of opportunity</h2>
<p>It seems, therefore, that equality of opportunity requires state intervention in our private lives to make sure that the children of our most disadvantaged citizens have the same opportunities as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-wins-from-big-gambling-in-australia-22930">children of Kerry Packer</a>. </p>
<p>The chances of achieving this look grim. There is <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/documents/downloads/DP85.pdf">relatively little</a> long-range intergenerational mobility in many countries. So, we have a fair way to go to get to a “fair go”.</p>
<p>To fully achieve equality of opportunity would require something along the lines of Plato’s Republic, where children are removed from their parents and raised communally. Such a system provides the same conditions for all to ensure a true <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-wrong-with-merit-why-equal-treatment-does-not-reward-the-most-deserving-18317">meritocracy</a>. </p>
<p>One reason to oppose this is the likely psychological damage to children. Another reason is that too much personal liberty would have to be sacrificed to the requirements of equality of opportunity. One might argue, as famed political philosopher John Rawls <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674005105">did</a>, that equality of opportunity can only take place once liberty is secured against such procedures. But this amendment seems to give up on the idea that each person really will have the same set of opportunities.</p>
<p>Rather than hold on to the idea of equality of opportunity, it might be more accurate to say that we don’t really support it because it comes at too high a price.</p>
<p>But let’s put these difficulties aside and assume that it is possible to have a society where each person has the same opportunities without having to undertake such drastic measures. We will still need a drastic rethink on how we distribute housing, education, health care, recreational activities and many other things to get close to the ideal. </p>
<p>Such a dialogue would be welcome, but would equality of opportunity then be desirable?</p>
<h2>Natural endowments</h2>
<p>Equality of opportunity necessarily leads to inequality once everyone has the same set of opportunities. These inequalities are supposedly justified because they arise solely from the talent and hard work of the individual. </p>
<p>This raises a different and intractable problem. What do we do about many of our talents being just as arbitrary as our class, race and gender – which are rightly deemed to be unacceptable sources of inequality? There seems no good reason why a person should benefit from the natural lottery rather than the social lottery. </p>
<p>Perhaps inequality is permissible if it results purely from hard work. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to parse out what is the result of environmental and genetic luck and what is the result of a healthy work ethic – which is also, in part, a feature of the natural lottery. Most of us will never <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0GESlaVNdE">bend it like Beckham</a> no matter how hard we try. </p>
<p>And as for making large amounts of money playing football, Beckham was very lucky to have been <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-24/matildas-pay-dwarfed-by-that-of-socceroos/6569022">born male</a>.</p>
<p>We would be unable to decide what people deserve in Plato’s community, where each child starts from the same position, let alone in our own society where children begin from very different starting points. When an idea asks for the impossible it might be time to reconsider and start thinking of equality in terms of outcomes rather than opportunities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43407/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David van Mill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rather than hold on to the idea of equality of opportunity, it might be more accurate to say that we don’t really support it because it comes at too high a price.David van Mill, Associate Professor in Political Science and International Relations, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/383622015-03-10T23:56:33Z2015-03-10T23:56:33ZThe growing opportunity gap facing American children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74236/original/image-20150309-13546-1stulcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The growing inequality that triggered the Occupy protests, such as this one in Bennington, Vermont, is now registering as an issue with politicians at the highest level.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_movement#mediaviewer/File:Occupy_protesters,_Bennington,_VT.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Daniel Case</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On rare occasions, a book frames an issue so powerfully that it sets the terms of all future debate. Robert Putnam’s <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/Our-Kids/Robert-D-Putnam/9781476769899">Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis</a> may do just this for the growing gulf between America’s rich and poor.</p>
<p>I was a member of Putnam’s research team for Our Kids during my studies at the <a href="http://www.hks.harvard.edu/">Harvard Kennedy School</a>, where Putnam is a professor of public policy – so I can offer some insights into the research, and explain why the team is optimistic about its impact.</p>
<p>Our Kids is woven from two very different strands of research: part hard data-crunching, part ethnography. One part of the team analysed immense longitudinal datasets to draw out novel insights, then synthesised these with existing research. Another part of the team travelled across the country to bring this data to life through detailed, and often disturbing, first-hand accounts of the lives of Lola, Sofia, Elijah and another dozen American children.</p>
<p>What the research reveals is a country dividing in two. Children in wealthy families have access to more opportunities than ever before, while children in working-class families are thwarted by mounting barriers. </p>
<p>Putnam’s hope is to make the opportunity gap the core issue of the 2016 presidential election. He has aligned the stars to make this happen. Our meetings would sometimes begin with Putnam introducing a hypothetical: if he happened to have a meeting scheduled with Jeb Bush this Friday, what are the two or three messages we would want to get across, and how would we do it? </p>
<p>Putnam has in fact been meeting with President Barack Obama (a former participant in Putnam’s Saguaro Seminar), Hillary Clinton’s team, Paul Ryan and the current Republican frontrunner for 2016, Jeb Bush. Obama has since put income inequality and social mobility at the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-focuses-agenda-on-relieving-economic-inequality/2013/12/04/bef286ac-5cfc-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html">top of his agenda</a>, and Bush has called the opportunity gap <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/04/jeb-bushs-middle-class-speech-was-a-historic-shift-and-more-of-the-same/">“the defining challenge of our time”</a>.</p>
<p>The purpose of Our Kids is to set this debate into full swing across the country. David Gergen, a former adviser to four US presidents including Obama, has called the “path-breaking” book a must-read for <a href="http://robertdputnam.com/about-our-kids/praise/">both the White House and the wider public</a>. </p>
<h2>Inequality of opportunity: a ‘purple’ problem</h2>
<p>Inequality of opportunity is what Putnam is fond of calling a “purple” problem: it transcends the political divide between red and blue states (that is, Republican and Democrat). Around 95% of Americans agree that “everyone in America should have equal opportunity to get ahead”.</p>
<p>This is perhaps unsurprising. Equality of opportunity is the cornerstone of the American Dream, as defined by James Truslow Adams:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… [a] social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable … regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whatever truth this dream once held, the data is indisputable. It is widely recognised that social mobility in the US is among the l<a href="http://www.oecd.org/eco/labour/49849281.pdf">owest in the OECD</a>. </p>
<p>What Our Kids adds is evidence that this gloomy social mobility data is the tip of the iceberg. The worst is yet to come: social mobility:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… seems poised to plunge in the years ahead, shattering the American dream. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Rearview mirror driving</h2>
<p>Putnam has long argued that social mobility measures provide only a “rearview mirror” take on the problem. This is because standard measures assess how social class passes from parents to their children, and logically we can only calculate this once the children have entered their 30s and 40s and demonstrated their full earning potential. </p>
<p>This means today’s social mobility data are a lagging indicator, which only tell us what was happening in children’s formative years 30 to 40 years ago. </p>
<p>To look out the front window and see where America is now – and where it is going to next – we need to look carefully at the formative influences shaping young people today. </p>
<h2>Trouble ahead</h2>
<p>Our Kids begins with a journey to Putnam’s home town of Port Clinton, Ohio, where he graduated high school in the class of ‘59. This town is the origin of the book’s title: Port Clinton townsfolk called all the community’s children “our kids”. </p>
<p>The research team found that most of Putnam’s classmates, whether born rich or poor, went on to enjoy better lives than their parents. If we set the influence of race aside, social class was only a modest influence on the lives of Putnam’s generation.</p>
<p>Yet the pathways followed by his generation’s children – and their children’s children – have been starkly divergent. These pathways are illuminated by interviews with young people across the country. They were revelatory even for the research team. Young people who live near one another, but who sit on opposite sides of the class divide, experience utterly different worlds. </p>
<p>The statistical data shows that these individual stories are representative of the lives of millions: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>The stable nuclear family is as strong as ever for rich families, while an incredible 70% of poor children live in single-parent families – up from just 20% in the 1960s.</p></li>
<li><p>More than half of American families live in neighbourhoods segregated by class, clustering rich kids in high-quality schools and poor kids in low-quality schools. </p></li>
<li><p>Most Americans now meet and marry within their class. Rich kids end up with two high-earning breadwinners and a powerful network to draw upon, while poor kids live with a single parent on a low income, and often find themselves in caring roles. </p></li>
<li><p>While parents’ extracurricular “enrichment spending” on top-decile kids has doubled since 1970 to almost $7,000 per year, bottom-decile kids still receive only $750.</p></li>
<li><p>The gap in elementary and secondary school performance between children from poor and rich families has grown by 30-40% over the past 25 years. </p></li>
<li><p>College attendance is now class-based rather than merit-based. A child is more likely to end up with a college degree if they are not-so-smart or hard-working (bottom third of test results) but are rich, than if they are smart and hard-working (top third in test results) but are poor. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Each of these measures is connected to future earnings. This is why social mobility is set to collapse: today’s low-income children face a deluge of developmental barriers, the effects of which will play out over the next few decades. </p>
<p>The long-term costs of the opportunity gap are expected to be immense, and result from lost labour productivity, increased crime and public health impacts. Holzer and his team estimate that today’s total cost of poverty is at least <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10796120701871280">US$500 billion per year</a>. If Our Kids is right, this cost will continue surging upward.</p>
<h2>Meeting the challenge</h2>
<p>Soaring income inequality is a primary cause of the growing opportunity gap. The team’s research suggests that the most important prescription is to restore working-class income. Even small increases in income appear to have substantial positive effects on opportunity indicators, from marriage stability to SAT scores. </p>
<p>The next most promising intervention is early childhood education, which has been shown to have positive effects on academic performance, criminal behaviour and lifetime income, with an attractive rate of return.</p>
<p>Other levers include social norms, such as shifting the stigma from unwed parenting to unplanned parenting; reducing incarceration rates through softer sentencing for non-violent crimes, such as many of those associated with the drug war; and replacing failed community ties with formal mentoring and coaching programs, for both children and their parents. </p>
<p>Low-income children face myriad disadvantages and these call for an equally diverse set of responses. Yet the main message is clear. Americans’ incomes must once again be made more equal.</p>
<h2>The Australian story</h2>
<p>I am now beginning research into Australian social mobility at the <a href="http://melbourneinstitute.com/">Melbourne Institute</a> at the University of Melbourne, which houses a major new research program in intergenerational disadvantage as part of the <a href="http://www.lifecoursecentre.org.au/">ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course</a>. </p>
<p>Are Putnam’s findings becoming true of Australia too? US poverty, inequality and social mobility figures are among the very worst in <a href="http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?">OECD datasets</a>. In comparison Australia looks in reasonable condition. Nonetheless, Australia is below the OECD average on each of these measures and should aspire for better. </p>
<p>Unfortunately we are heading for worse. One thing we share with the US is our direction of travel. Productivity Commission <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/income-distribution-trends/income-distribution-trends.pdf">data</a> shows that inequality has increased sharply since the 1980s, with almost all income growth since then accruing to the richest 20% of Australians. </p>
<p>The last federal budget proposed perhaps the boldest steps yet down the American path, most notably with the push to increase the costs of education and health care and to shift the relative tax burden from the wealthy to the poor. </p>
<p>The American Dream is not uniquely American, and inequality of opportunity is a “purple” problem in Australia too. When deciding what constitutes “fair” policy, our political leaders should be aware that unchecked income inequality and slashed safety nets will have disastrous effects on equality of opportunity.</p>
<p>Putnam’s research provides a glimpse into one possible future for Australia. We should think carefully about the kind of country we want for our kids.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38362/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reuben Finighan was a member of Robert Putnam's research team for Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. He has no ongoing affiliation and receives no benefits from its sale.</span></em></p>The opportunity gap between well-off and poor American children is vast and, more alarmingly still, it is growing. Some political leaders are starting to take note of the grim consequences.Reuben Finighan, Senior Research Officer at The Melbourne Institute and Fellow of the ARC Life Course Centre of Excellence, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/298662014-09-26T13:44:10Z2014-09-26T13:44:10ZThe race for boardroom diversity is falling at the first hurdle<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60163/original/nm77fxc5-1411718725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C555%2C1965%2C1035&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fellas. Somethings wrong here.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/savidgefamily/7889693678">srv007</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Tesco <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-tesco-ceo-might-enjoy-the-benefits-of-a-dramatic-debut-32046">hits the headlines over accounting</a> and fast-falling profits, 11 kempt faces <a href="http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=79">look out from its website</a>. They are the Tesco board members: three of them women and eight of them men.</p>
<p>That ratio puts Tesco just over the 25% target for female FTSE-100 board membership called for by the UK government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31480/11-745-women-on-boards.pdf">2011 review of “Women on Boards”</a>. It is just under the level demanded by the City’s <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-27/helena-morrissey-on-%0Afounding-the-30-percent-club">influential 30% Club</a> and well under the overall 40% mandated by the Norwegian government, and proposed and passed by the European Parliament. So would one more female member have changed things at Tesco? Would the board then have spotted accounting problems or reversed the profit declines of the past few years?</p>
<p>Put like that, the questions sound nonsensical. And they are nonsensical. So why are so many politicians and business people coming out in favour of quotas? Large numbers are, or claim to be, convinced that female quotas on company boards are great for the companies, and great for the economy – indeed one of our best bets as a <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118596/corporate-diversity-needed-fix-economy">“potential solution to inequality”</a>. </p>
<h2>Diverse views</h2>
<p>The theory is clear enough. It is about diversity and effective management. Group-think is bad and inefficient: if everyone on a board is much the same, they will miss opportunities, ignore dangers, provide an echo chamber for the same old views. Take an all-male board and insert some women – and straight off, you’ll have different views, greater built-in diversity. </p>
<p>The result? The board will be more effective and more innovative. The company will benefit, both directly, at strategic level and longer-term by noticing and encouraging ignored female talent in its ranks. The economy will grow; at a time when governments are desperately searching for higher productivity and higher growth; here is a business case with social kudos attached. And if signing up gains plaudits from the commentariat, well, so much the better.</p>
<p>And the evidence? Well that’s rather different.</p>
<p>Advocates of quotas claim that companies with more women board members consistently perform better. But the evidence cited for consistent success turns out to <a href="http://catalyst.org/knowledge/bottom-line-corporate-performance-and-%0Awomens-representation-boards-20042008">come from advocacy units</a>. Academic research tells a different story. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60165/original/vmq7nft5-1411721520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60165/original/vmq7nft5-1411721520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60165/original/vmq7nft5-1411721520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60165/original/vmq7nft5-1411721520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60165/original/vmq7nft5-1411721520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60165/original/vmq7nft5-1411721520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60165/original/vmq7nft5-1411721520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60165/original/vmq7nft5-1411721520.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Danish diversity flagging?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hugovk/158813147/in/photolist-fN8LKh-fN8Tyj-6P86yg-J1EMB-3Dvvv-e7EpoU-68REAc-9QMDAg-nqbxG4-f2XBH-f2WCn-6XeWgb-7o2CT6-4uiYP-o1jM2g-6VoaXA-9BctkC-dsv9j9-3nkB1b-nyxCUf">hugovk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A number of studies using data from the 1980s and 1990s, <a href="http://www.smithers.co.uk/faqs.php">and a “Tobin’s Q” measure of firm performance</a>, come up with conflicting results – some positive, some negative, and a good number which find no evidence of a relationship at all. In Denmark, which prides itself on gender equality but whose private sector boards are highly male-dominated, data showed <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=972533">no relationship between gender diversity and performance</a>. One large-scale 2009 study, using US data on 2,000 firms and 87,000 directorships and employing a wide range of measures found that, on average, the more female boards members, <a href="http://www.responsible-investor.com/images/uploads/Women_in_the_boardroom.pdf">the <em>lower</em> a company’s performance</a>.</p>
<p>This isn’t very encouraging for people looking for an economic miracle pill. But it is also, predictably, difficult to interpret. Company performance depends on vast numbers of things. Effects apparently associated with the number of women directors might also reflect some other factor which was in turn linked to board behaviour (as, indeed, the academic literature often suggests).</p>
<h2>Data crunch</h2>
<p>That is what makes Norwegian data so interesting. Norway was a natural experiment. After quota legislation was passed, firms had to appoint women or suffer heavy penalties; so appoint they did. Boards changed. Researchers could compare their performance before and after. </p>
<p>And the result? The greater the change companies had to make in order to reach the mandated 40%, the more likely it was, in the years that followed, that <a href="http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/adittmar/NBD.SSRN.2011.05.20.pdf">company performance would <em>decline</em></a>. </p>
<p>This does not, I would emphasise, show that (all) women are worse company directors than (all) men. That is as nonsensical, in reverse, as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/davos/10597233/Quotas-%0Aneeded-for-women-in-executive-roles.html">Christine Lagarde’s</a> suggestion that “Lehman Sisters” wouldn’t have <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/lagarde-what-if-it-had-been-%0Alehman-sisters/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0">brought banking to its knees</a>. If gender-dependent differences in performance were large or consistent, the evidence on directors and company performance – and on how men and women behave at work – would be hugely clearer than it is. Instead there are two likely explanations. First, just appointing women to boards may be a bad way to get diversity. Second, perhaps diversity isn’t all it’s made out to be anyway.</p>
<h2>False positives</h2>
<p>It has never been clear why replacing three male bankers with three female bankers, three male Oxbridge graduates with three female Oxbridge graduates, or three male accountants with three female ones produces more board diversity. But that is pretty much what growing female representation involves. On the whole, female board members of private companies share the same social and educational experience as the men and, with our changing labour market, more and more of them have similar work histories too. </p>
<p>But female quotas certainly make some women rich. In Norway, there was a scramble to get one of the country’s few experienced female directors onto your board, and what Norwegians called the “golden skirts” <a href="http://sciencenordic.com/golden-skirts-fill-board-rooms">piled up multiple lucrative positions</a>. </p>
<p>However, not everyone could hire them. Researchers found that new female directors were, on average, younger and less experienced than pre-quota men who remained on boards. They suggest that companies forced to make major changes at speed often ended up with less experienced directors, but also that the boards were less effective the more they were disrupted. </p>
<p>That sounds very plausible. But it also blows holes in the case for a simple vision of “diversity”. After all, it is exactly those boards which were disrupted – exactly those boards that didn’t hire only the most experienced, well-connected female candidates that had the greatest increase in diversity. And it didn’t seem to yield the promised dividends. One of the few other aspects of diversity on which we have hard data is education levels. And interestingly, having boards that are more or less diverse on that measure doesn’t show any effects at all.</p>
<p>As more and more women enter professional careers and make it into the <a href="http://www.profilebooks.com/isbn/9781846684036/">top echelons of business life</a> inequality between female workers has increased, and <a href="http://www.breakingviews.com/review-inequality-is-the-dark-side-of-leaning-in/21112917.article">done so faster than male inequality</a>. That is actually a positive development, because it the result of female economic success. But the vast mass of women still do traditional jobs, often for very low rates of pay. And I’ve never found any studies that demonstrate a link between high levels of female directors’ pay and changes in female pay levels further down the company.</p>
<p>It is the women at the top, the highly-paid professionals, who are making board-room quotas the feminist cause of the 2010s. Up there, getting females into the boardroom really may seem like a vastly important cause. But the arguments rest on a highly partial interpretation of flimsy data. They don’t offer a magic bullet for the economy, or the well-being of women world-wide. Or, for that matter, for Tesco.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29866/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Wolf does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As Tesco hits the headlines over accounting and fast-falling profits, 11 kempt faces look out from its website. They are the Tesco board members: three of them women and eight of them men. That ratio puts…Alison Wolf, Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109802012-11-27T04:07:32Z2012-11-27T04:07:32ZGender equality act won’t fix discrimination, but it will make employers accountable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/17992/original/ww88vgnf-1353890477.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women will now have access to information about the equality practices of prospective employers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’ve all seen the reports of studies demonstrating women’s inequality at work. It is well established that women are disproportionately under-represented in higher paid positions and industries, and that there is a gender pay gap of <a href="http://www.eowa.gov.au/Pay_Equity.asp">17.5%</a> between men and women. Lack of pay equity and equal opportunities are the elephants in the room for every woman in the Australian workforce.</p>
<p>Although the causes are complex, research suggests they are based in deep cultural expectations and stereotypes that are not to do with the efforts of individual women at work. Studies have shown that when identical CVs are sent out with male and female names attached, the male CVs receive <a href="https://theconversation.com/study-confirms-sexism-in-science-so-what-are-we-going-to-do-9762">more interest from employers</a> and more favourable assessments. So these issues can’t be simply dismissed as the result of lack of interest by women. Instead, we need to look at the ways workforce structures and practices, developed to suit the historical male role of full-time breadwinner, might tend to exclude women and limit their opportunities.</p>
<p>Australia’s legislation requiring employers to provide equal opportunity programs for women at work (the <a href="http://www.eowa.gov.au/About_EOWA/Overview_of_the_Act.asp">Equal Employment for Women at Work Act 1986</a> has now been amended and renamed the <a href="http://www.eowa.gov.au/About_EOWA/Overview_of_the_Act/Act_At_A_Glance/WGE_Act_at_a_Glance.pdf">Workplace Gender Equality Act</a>. It now aims to ensure equality at work for both women and men, with a focus on sex discrimination and treatment of workers with caring responsibilities.</p>
<h2>Who’s covered?</h2>
<p>The act applies to the same employers as the previous law: all higher education institutions and non-government employers of more than 100 employees are covered. The exclusion of small businesses appears to be an acknowledgement that smaller organisations may not have the human resources capacity to comply with the requirements. Public employment is also excluded. </p>
<p>Some areas, such as Commonwealth authorities and some state government employment are covered by other laws that impose equal employment opportunity requirements, and the law assumes that governments will adopt their own measures on gender and other grounds such as disability.</p>
<h2>What’s new?</h2>
<p>Over its 26-year life, the Act has had limited impact on gender inequality at work.</p>
<p>The new requirements apply to employers for the next reporting period ending in March 2014. Employers will no longer have to prepare an equal employment opportunity program to lodge with the renamed Workplace Gender Equality Agency set up by the Act. Instead, they will be required to report on “gender equality indicators”. These will include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The gender composition of the workforce, and of any governing body such as a council or board of directors.</p></li>
<li><p>Equal remuneration between women and men in their workforce.</p></li>
<li><p>Availability and usefulness of employment terms, conditions and practices relating to flexible work, or supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>A new level of publicity will also be added. Most of the data reported to the Agency will be publicly available, and employers will be required to notify employees and shareholders of their reports and allow them an opportunity to comment. As a result, the Act will now require the production of data on employers’ performance that is widely disseminated and publicly available. This approach accords with the modern management maxim “what gets measured gets done”, and that transparency improves accountability, ensuring that actions are taken.</p>
<p>Minimum standards will be defined over time by the minister responsible via regulation from 2013. These are intended to be industry-specific, and failure to comply with minimum standards will be a breach of the Act. The Agency will be required to report to the minister every two years on progress towards equal opportunity for women at work.</p>
<h2>Will it work?</h2>
<p>Will it make a difference? It is clear that deep cultural change will be needed to move away from stereotypical expectations about the incompatibility of femininity and leadership; women’s inherent responsibility for childcare; and the “normal” worker being a full-time worker free of caring responsibilities according to the historical male model. In individual organisations, change occurs when it is championed with commitment from the top.</p>
<p>Law is limited in the extent to which it can force organisations to change their ways. It is not an automatic or complete solution. But the new approach has substantial potential to increase the accountability of organisations and encourage change in the necessary direction. </p>
<p>It will begin to build a record of data about gender equity in individual organisations and the workforce generally that is not otherwise available. Individual women will even be able to check the gender equity record of organisations they might be seeking work with.</p>
<p>The Act seeks to balance the need for change with the interests of employers in manageable requirements. Time will tell whether this balance has been effectively struck or needs further adjustment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Gaze receives funding from.Australian Research Council</span></em></p>We’ve all seen the reports of studies demonstrating women’s inequality at work. It is well established that women are disproportionately under-represented in higher paid positions and industries, and that…Beth Gaze, Associate Professor of Law, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.