For the past ten years or longer, the corporate movement of "Diversity and Inclusiveness" has become more and more important to attraction, recruitment and retention of top talent. I am studying this now for my company, and wish to solicit a discussion point on how bad it is, or isn't, in the engineering workplace. Topics are gender, sexual preference, academic level, race, religion, handicap, culture, size (fat, thin, tall, short, muscular, flabby . . etc) and others you can think of. How comfortable do others make you feel in the engineering environment, for example, if you are (and these are just random examples to spark dialogue; I'm not putting categories together here just "typing out loud" to get comments):
1) White working in Nigeria
2) Jewish working in Russia
3) Black working in Ireland
4) Gay working in Houston
5) Female working in Saudi
6) Associate degree working with PhDs
7) PhD working with semi skilled
8) Heavy Texan accent working in Europe
9) USA person working . . well . . anywhere outside USA.
10) Vegetarian working in Oklahoma
11) Handicapped working in Argentina
Do people from the culture of the mother company get paid more than ex-pats. Do women? Can you openly come out and say you are gay and not be shunned by colleagues, and if so, which types shun you? Woman? Men? Religious? Academics?
Can you openly come out and say you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim etc etc etc.
Do you try to hide your perceived differences, and if so, why? Do you enjoy your work or enjoy more the people you work with. Is there anybody that just loves their work but hates going to work because they are made to feel unwelcome or outcast. Why? How to fix it?
Do white males treat you differently than black males? Woman?
I think engineering cultures have their own set of unspoken rules that may be more harsh on people categories than others so compare yourself to a different professional culture. If treated badly in the engineering culture, would you suspect it to be different in a career such as sports, racing, selling, teaching, finance, or . . . ?????
I want to fix this, and you all are my research group. Please comment.
George
Diversity and Inclusiveness - Discrimination in Engineering Fields
