Good intentions can often lead to unintended consequences. And, with the greatest of respect to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, leaders need to think carefully about the organisations they’re creating as I’m worried that there is now too much focus on gender.
This single issue has become the forefront of each diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy and means that other important topics are falling down the agenda. In some ways the selective focus on gender can be likened to the undefeated champion at the children’s birthday party; repeatedly beating all the others to their winning moment in the game of musical chairs.
Why shouldn’t it be centre stage? Levelling-up has required sustained focus and commitment to achieve gender balance and it is now delivering in abundance. But you can have too much of a good thing. Gender has become an obsessive topic in business conversations around leadership and development. Even when we are provided with the opportunity to talk about other things within D&I the topic of gender glides seamlessly back into the discussion and I can’t help but wonder… why?
For more than a decade Ennis & Co has provided a platform to discuss, explore and implement practical and effective approaches to achieve diversity and inclusion across the automotive sector, through annual events, many of which started from the initial challenge to address gender imbalance. For some time this issue has been playing on my mind and following feedback from our third D&I event in partnership with Auto Trader on Tuesday, I wanted to start a new conversation on gender because it seems a lot of other leaders are having similar thoughts.
The D&I conversation has now widened beyond gender and it would be remiss of me, and also a great disservice to the attendees at our event, if I didn’t address some of the comments raised this week. Many of the participants wanted to hear more about how businesses are addressing aspects of diversity and inclusion beyond ‘gender-related’. They wanted to hear more about attracting and increasing a neurodiverse workforce, supporting and engaging with disabled people and exploring other aspects of diversity including race and sexuality.
It is always motivating to hear the practical approach and personal experience from speakers and this year we went further than before with contributions from OEMs, retailers, suppliers and partners. Yet, even within this platform, and despite other subjects being raised by speakers, the conversation returned repeatedly to the subject of prioritising women in automotive.
Can we please call ‘time’ on gender as a single-issue conversation masquerading as D&I? I struggle with selective focus on gender which drowns out the broader spectrum of inequality which needs to be addressed.
I know how this might sound – I am not one to rest on my laurels. We need to reach past the success of gender balance to adapt and change in other areas of the workplace. We need to respond to the growing chorus of voices who are wary of challenging the status quo, held back by fear of being misunderstood.
Perhaps it’s down to me to start the conversation and see what can be done to break down the barriers and widen the debate? How can we have sustainable diversity and inclusion in the workplace when there’s so much focus on one aspect, almost to the exclusion of all others? I really welcome all thoughts on this matter because it’s time we had a proper conversation.
Please share your thoughts – and watch this space…
