equity, diversity, & inclusion caroline laguerre-brown, jd director, equity compliance &...

Equity, Diversity, & Equity, Diversity, & InclusionInclusion

Caroline Laguerre-Brown, JDDirector, Equity Compliance & Education Office of Institutional Equity3400 N. Charles Street, Garland Hall, Ste. 130Baltimore, MD 21218-2696410-516-8075 / Fax [email protected]

Examining the Microinequity

JHU’s Broad Goals

Equity: Concept or idea of fairness.

Diversity: Presence of a wide range of variation in quality or attributes

Inclusion: Fully and respectfully involving all individuals in the activities and life of the organization.

Copyright 2007 Office of Institutional Equity Johns Hopkins University Caroline Laguerre-Brown, JD

And Yet…

Diversity Climate Survey Data

Feedback from Various JHU Service Providers

Sincerity of the goals fail to reach all members of the JHU community.


Diversity Climate Survey Data

African-Americans are much less satisfied with their JHU experience than Whites.


The majority of respondents across the board believed that they were not recognized for their work achievements.

Diversity Climate Survey Data (cont’d)



While the satisfaction surveys for men and women were similar, men were more likely to report their satisfaction with superlatives than their female counterparts.


Respondents did not believe that policies, practices, and procedures are applied consistently.



What factors contribute to this

kind of data?


Usual Suspects

Discrimination/Harassment/Retaliation Unlawful conduct that is either ignored or

unaddressed undermines the integrity of any diversity initiative.

Natural enemy of a diversity initiative


Usual Suspects (cont’d)

Myths and Misconceptions Diversity is often characterized as a

narrow concept limited solely to targeted recruitment efforts for women and minorities. preferential treatment based on race or gender quotas


Anti-Discrimination Laws and Internal Policies

LAWS AND POLICES EXIST TO ADDRESS THE USUAL SUSPECTS:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Title IX of the Education Amendment Acts

State and Local Law

JHU Anti-Harassment Policies


A More Subtle Suspect:

The Microinequity

Microinequity – A subtle, sometimes subconscious, message that devalues, discourages, and ultimately impairs performance.


Microinequity

Concept developed by Dr. Mary Rowe at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Rowe had been studying exclusion based on race or gender.


Microinequity (cont’d)

Stephen young, a corporate leader, authored a book entitled Micro Messaging and developed a leadership training program called, “Microinequities: The Power of Small.”


Microinequities alone are typically not legally actionable: Petty slights, minor annoyances, or a

simple lack of good manners are not unlawful

Supreme Court in Burlington Northern v. White (2006)





Traditional complaint processes fail to address the microinequity because they don’t fit neatly into an analytical framework.

Why should we care about them?


Subtle disparities in: treatment support mentoring collegiality

* More pernicious barriers to a truly inclusive culture than overt harassment or discrimination.


The Impact

Microinequities translate into statements like: “I don’t feel welcome.”

“I don’t feel supported.”

“I don’t feel valued.”

“My contribution has been marginalized.”

“I feel invisible.”Copyright 2007 Office of Institutional Equity Johns Hopkins University Caroline Laguerre-Brown, JD

Examples of Common Microinequities

Dismissing the idea of one employee only to applaud the same idea when paraphrased by another employee.


Examples of Common Microinequities (cont’d)

A chair uses a light-hearted, playful greeting with some faculty, but greets others in a formal, more distant manner.


Repeatedly confusing the names of classmates who share the same ethnic background.



Co-workers who ridicule or tease an employee with an accent.



A faculty member is fully engaged when responding to the contribution of a male student, but is critical and dismissive when females respond.



What can we do to combat the microinequities in our midst? Engage in critical self-analysis

Tactfully solicit feedback from others about the micro-messages you may be unaware of

Make a conscious effort to view your environment through the eyes of others

Work toward aligning your intent and goals with your micro-messages


Discussion Questions

Discussion Question 1

Nicholas Ryan is a junior faculty member in a busy and competitive research laboratory largely populated by females. When Dr. Ryan took on his new role, he was excited and felt highly motivated to make a contribution. Within a few short weeks, Dr. Ryan began getting the strong impression that his principal investigator, Dr. Lisa Macy, didn’t like him very much. During laboratory meetings, Dr. Ryan often felt like an outsider because Dr. Macy frequently shared inside jokes with Dr. Ryan’s female counterparts about shared experiences outside of the lab. When he shared his conclusion with a colleague, he was unable to provide any examples of overt hostility. When he sought advice from Dr. Macy about a grant application, she appeared to be distracted and uninterested in his ideas even though she stated that his ideas sounded “interesting.” Thereafter he learned that two female faculty members, who are also recent additions to the lab, were about to submit grant applications. Both faculty members spoke of receiving significant input from Dr. Macy on their impending applications.As weeks turn into months, Dr. Ryan concludes that his career will be derailed if he stays in his lab and commences a search for a new mentor. As he quietly begins searching for this alternate arrangement, he begins feeling somewhat insecure as he contemplates explaining to others the reason for his departure. He approached Dr. Macy to discuss his intention to leave and asked her how she would handle a request for a reference. Dr. Macy responded with what appeared to be genuine surprise and stated that she was unaware that he was unhappy.


You are an associate professor in a large, active, and often tension-filled department. Many members of your support staff are relatively new to JHU and in your view lack the subject matter knowledge necessary to ensure fast and efficient support. You prefer working with the staffers who came up through the ranks with you and with whom you have much more in common. At some point, you begin to notice marked coldness from the newer staffers and decide that in addition to being useless, they are unpleasant. You begin to respond with the same level of coldness. On a rare occasion when you are forced to request help from one of the new staffers, you encounter a problem and complain to his supervisor. A short-time later, you are informed that the staffer in question and several others complained that you favor older white workers over younger persons of color. To illustrate their point, the staffers noted that you are warm and friendly to the senior staffers (often sharing pleasantries and coffee with them) while you ignore the newer staffers or glare at them with disdain.

You are outraged by this accusation. The way you see it, poor performance is poor performance—no matter what claim has now been made. Deep down, you are more than a little troubled by the possibility that your actions conveyed an unintended message. You will not feign chummy relationships where none exist, but want to be the type of person who can deal with this issue honestly and effectively. The senior staffers will likely retire in the next 2 to 5 years and you are concerned about the future.


Aria is a 20 year old Mexican American woman, who was born and raised in Miami. She is a computer science major and has just begun her junior year. Like many of her peers at Johns Hopkins, she was valedictorian of her high school class and has come to her academic advisor, Chris, because she would like to go to graduate school for a PhD in computer science after graduation next year. Aria has never talked about her future plans with her academic advisor before, but one of Aria’s professors has told her that if she is serious about graduate school she should start planning her next steps now. During the meeting, Aria discussed her plans with Chris and the advice from her professor. Chris asked a few questions and then asked “Well, Aria, when I look at your grade point average of 3.5, I’m really not sure if you could be successful in a PhD program.” A little surprised, Aria responded, “I know my grades aren’t as good as some of the people around here, but I also know that I wasn’t able to go to a fancy private school, but I was valedictorian of my high school class. Even if it was ‘JUST’ public school.” Cutting Aria off, Chris replied “I don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not you went to private school, I think that maybe if you work really hard, you can succeed like everyone else. Getting into a PhD program is really hard and if you don’t succeed, you have only yourself to blame.” Aria didn’t know what else to say, so she didn’t say anything. Chris made some additional recommendations and then signed off on Aria’s classes for the semester. Aria walked away from the meeting feeling like Chris was subtly telling her that it’s unusual for people of color to succeed because they are lazy and/or incompetent and need to work harder. Later that day Chris was talking with his supervisor and commented, “I’m very excited for Aria and I hope that she takes her studies seriously because we need more Latino women in the high tech field.” His supervisor responded by saying , I’m glad you stopped by because Aria just left my office after letting me know that she didn’t want you to be her advisor anymore. His supervisor also mentioned that Aria stated that her goals were undervalued.

Discussion Question 4 Martina Dyson is African-American woman recently hired to supervise a high-energy work group with a history of turmoil with their previous supervisors. Although Ms. Dyson is made aware of the challenges that she would face, she felt confident that her education, training, perseverance, and interpersonal skills would ultimately help her to overcome the challenges of this workgroup. Ms. Dyson’s optimism is dampened when she finds that her direct supervisor, Jeremy Edwards employs a very different style of management with her than he does with her peer supervisors. Ms. Dyson quickly finds that Mr. Edwards consistently responds in a dismissive and impatient manner when she tries to make suggestions during meetings with her peers and that he second guesses her decision-making in front of her subordinates while displaying deference and support for her peer managers in similar situations. After several months, Ms. Dyson finds that her colleagues have begun to mirror Mr. Edwards behavior toward her and that her subordinates routinely circumvent her, seeking guidance and instruction from Mr. Edwards directly.

Ms. Dyson feels that although Mr. Edwards hired her, his actions since her hire indicate that he felt that she was somehow less capable then her peers even though she was never given an opportunity to lead without his micro-management. She decides to talk with Mr. Edwards about her concerns.

equity, diversity, & inclusion caroline laguerre-brown, jd director, equity compliance &...

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