Going Beyond Diversity to Create Belonging

In Love Sheffield we focus on inclusion

Thanks to one of our many and diverse Love Sheffield Hosts, for this guest essay.

What is Inclusion?

Inclusion. Along with “equality” and “diversity”, inclusion is a word that is mentioned a lot in recent times. Being inclusive is important - in some situations it’s a legal requirement - but what, exactly, is “inclusion”?

“Diversity” and “inclusion” are used together so often that they are commonly thought of as a single term. However, these words have very different meanings, and the merging of the definitions can often result in inclusion being missed, which can have a significant impact on those that really need it to be considered.

Diversity is easy to define: it’s a measure of the distribution of specific characteristics within a group of people. In other words, it’s the number of people within the group that have a specific gender, skin colour, age, sexual orientation, are neurodiverse, etc. If there are a range of different races/ages/LGBTQ+ or a good proportion of the entire group fall into minority groups within these categories, then the group of people are diverse.

In contrast, inclusion is less easy to define. There are attempts to define it - a quick Google search will tell you that “Inclusion is the practice of including people in a way that is fair for all, values everyone's differences, and empowers and enables each person to be themselves and achieve their full potential and thrive at work”. It’s about “ensuring that everyone feels valued and respected as an individual.” Often though, it’s defined in qualitative terms along the lines of Verna Myers' phrase “diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance”.

Inclusion is predominantly invisible - it’s easier to notice when you experience exclusion, than to see examples of inclusion - and this creates a problem. For example, we’re often told that white male leaders tend to be less aware of bias within their organisation - because they’re not experiencing the exclusion themselves, so lack a clear understanding of where problems might be, or how big they are. As a result, the exclusions don’t get addressed satisfactorily.

It’s far easier to address diversity... but diversity doesn’t really address inclusion - and diversity highlights differences and can cause a disconnect, rather than achieving a sense of belonging. It’s far better to focus on inclusion, rather than diversity.

Diversity puts labels on people - but those labels can hit grey areas. Skin colour and age, for example, are a continuum and not an absolute characteristic. Labels can also exclude people: if you’re mixed race, which group do you belong to? Or they can put many people into the same category where they really have nothing much in common. For example, millions of people can be described as “European”, and would all fall into this diversity label, but are made up of such a wide range of different cultures, languages.... Etc.

Perhaps a bigger problem is diversity can encourage stereotyping and lead to negative sentiments. Anti-semitism, racism, sexism to name a few. Diversity, therefore, highlights differences rather than commonalities, which can lead to friction, bias, and discomfort and - as a result - prevent inclusion from being achieved.

Far better, then, to focus on inclusion. If you have an inclusive environment where everyone has the chance to succeed, then people from different backgrounds will choose to enter this environment and diversity will be achieved without needing to look for the labels.

So... what is inclusion?

Inclusion is making places that everyone can use. Inclusion is removing the barriers that create separation and enables everyone to participate confidently, independently and equally. Inclusion is allowing people to gain social acceptance, have positive interactions, and be valued for who they are. Inclusion means planning, changing and/or having different activities, in order to meet individual needs.

Inclusion doesn’t mean making changes to include a group of people, if that then excludes another. Nor does it mean simply inviting someone with a different background without considering how to ensure they feel comfortable when they arrive.

It’s these misunderstandings of inclusion that can lead to exclusions. Let’s consider two examples of this. The first, perhaps a controversial topic, is the inclusion of trans-women in female-only changing rooms. Now, before I go on, let’s make it clear - ‘biological women’* generally have no objection to sharing their spaces with trans-woman. However, they do have an objection to sharing their space with a man that is using the self-identifying label to infiltrate women-only spaces for nefarious reasons. Everywhere you look, as a woman, you are told that the likelihood of this happening is rare. It’s not a danger. It’s not an issue, and you’re being discriminatory if you even dare to suggest you feel uncomfortable. I’ve even upset an AI bot recently when I had this discussion and asked it to answer the real issue that concerns women here: Men are stronger than women. We are easily overpowered and if a man was in our women-only spaces with an intent to harm us, we probably would be powerless to prevent it if we are alone in that space. For us, that happening once, is once too often. (Consider that no-one has raised the vice-versa of trans-men using men-only spaces as being a problem and why that may be...). The AI bot, which usually answered my points within seconds, crashed. It had no answer that didn’t disagree with its programming (it appears they’re not allowed to think outside the PC opinion of this issue not causing a danger to women), so it invoked the wheel of death that was still spinning 4 hours later...

Sad to say, including trans-women in women-only spaces does exclude “biological women” - by the very nature in that it can make us feel unsafe and uncomfortable because of the risk - however minuscule - of finding ourselves in a changing room alongside a man that is trying to do us harm. It’s not inclusive to all, it’s only inclusive to trans-women. Which does bring the problem that excluding trans-women in order to allow others to feel fully safe, is, by definition, exclusive of trans-women. A bit of a dilemma then! The solution? The AI bot and I decided that gender neutral, alongside gender-specific, spaces was the best compromise here. This is the only way to ensure that transgender people aren’t forced to use the changing rooms/toilets of the gender they don’t belong to, while also allowing others to maintain their sense of safety if they are concerned. But it is only a compromise - I don’t really know what the true inclusive solution is.

An easier example of attempts to be inclusive leading to exclusion is with neurodiversity. Let’s consider the autistic child that is invited to a birthday party. It’s not enough to include them by simply inviting them - if you don’t put things into place to help them cope with the party environment then you’re not being inclusive. Consider inviting a child in a wheelchair to a party held in a building that has steps at the entrance but no ramp access. You wouldn’t do it - the child couldn’t get in the building. The same is true for the neurodiverse child - unless you make accommodations such as keeping noise and light levels to a minimum, or providing a quiet space/break area for sensory regulation, offering a variety of activities to accommodate different sensory needs and being flexible with rules and expectations - allowing behaviours outside the social norm - then that neurodiverse child won’t be able to engage with the party. They are likely to have a meltdown and severely disrupt the party, and have to leave. By inviting them, you’re being diverse - but inclusivity means ensuring they can actively participate and thrive.

Inclusivity, therefore, goes further than diversity. It also goes further than equality. Equality is the foundation to diversity and inclusion - It's about making sure everyone has the same rights and opportunities. But inclusivity goes a step further. Inclusivity is about removing the barriers that keep people from being able to access those rights and opportunities. It's about creating a culture and environment that celebrates and values differences, and actively works to ensure everyone can participate and thrive. Equality is about levelling the playing field, diversity is about inviting everyone to play, but inclusivity is about making sure everyone can play.

Inclusivity is important. Inclusivity focuses on similarities to decrease discomfort and tension, and remove stereotypes. This will then remove bias, and allow people from diverse backgrounds to feel, or be able to be, more included and engaged.

Let’s focus on inclusion, rather than diversity.

One source of information for this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paologaudiano/2019/01/22/eight-reasons-why-we-need-to-focus-on-inclusion/

Conversations with pi.ai and Perplexity.ai were also helpful.

*Apologies - I refuse to use the term “cis-women." I personally find the label quite offensive, even if it is biologically and scientifically correct.

Please share any thoughts you have in the comments below, remember our core values are kindness, compassion and creativity and our purpose is to help make it easier for all of our friends to become more connected.