5 Things / Equity First
Black History (which in my mind, should be respected and celebrated all year) Month is almost over. Before the month ends, I want to reflect on the “E” in DEI. Equity. When I first started this work, “E” wasn’t much discussed, but now I realize equity is the most important word in the acronym.
You may have noticed that my company’s name is Equality Institute, sometimes mistyped as Equity Institute. Truthfully, equity comes first. Equality is this aspirational state of everyone being equal. I’m an aspirational kind of person, so I’m all for it. But we have to get there first – and we get there through equity. Equity involves changing the systems so that more is available to those who need it in order to give everyone a fair shot at success.
As I recently was reminded (“there are no scholarships for white boys”), there are a lot of people who think equitable initiatives (like the ones I share here each week) are unfair. I happen to think that unconscious bias that leads to us hiring and doing business with people like us, is unfair. Equity is about making it right so we have a chance at equality.
Equity also involves amplifying the voices and stories of those who have traditionally been underrepresented. It’s in that spirit that I shout out some awesome Black professionals you might want to hire beyond February for things besides DEI. I personally vouch for these brilliant and kind people:
Alana Hill: Leadership and strategy speaker and coach, and author of What’s Your Catalyst? The Power of Managed Change
Derrick Johnson II: Associations expert and empathetic leadership consultant and speaker.
Michelle Silverthorn: DEI speaker and author of Authentic Diversity: How to Change the Workplace for Good
Charlene Wheeless: Motivational speaker and coach, and author of You are Enough: Reclaiming Your Career and Your Life with Purpose, Passion, and Unapologetic Authenticity
LaTonya Wilkins: Leadership speaker and coach, author of Leading Below the Surface: How to Build Real (and Psychologically Safe) Teams with People Who Are Different From You
Here are the good vibes I found this week:
Like most companies, Linktree offers core benefits to employees. Unlike most, Linktree realizes employees value flexibility in their other benefits, and provides them with $6k to use on activities falling into wellness, lifestyle, or impact pillars. Employee A may use the money towards a yoga retreat; employee B may use it towards a vacation, and employee C may use it towards charitable donations. This matters because employee flexibility is paramount and the company can better attract and retain underrepresented talent by showing its own flexibility.
One way to increase diversity is to not show résumés to hiring managers and decision-makers. Instead, Health Data Research UK created a short questionnaire that asked intern candidates to explain what artificial intelligence was or to talk about a recent piece of technology they were studying. The result was a big increase in the number of women interns. They’re now using a similar process for full-time employees. This matters because résumés are full of hidden bias, and by removing résumés from the equation, we can focus more on the individual and increase diversity.
The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has achieved equal pay with the men’s team, and settled its lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. This matters because those women players are fantastic, and deserve to be compensated equally. This was a high-profile story that will surely lead to paying equity for women in other areas, for other sports.
Brides Magazine has successfully kept its 2020 pledge of having 20% of “Real Wedding” features be Black, and 50% be “diverse couples” more generally. In 2021, 27% of real weddings were Black couples and 54% were diverse. This matters because white folks have largely dominated real wedding magazine and blog features, leaving BIPOC and LGBTQ couples underrepresented.
iPhones will soon have a pregnant man emoji. Beta users already have access, but it’s set to be available for everyone in the new software update. This matters because yes, men can be pregnant, too (trans men – but trans men are men), and these emojis now represent them.