Looking at D&I, you’ll often see that many of the topics we’re discussing, and trying to create a better working environment for, started as political movements. Take gender as an example: our current discussions around The Gender Pay Gap and discussions in the 90’s about the Glass Ceiling were all possible because of the Women’s Movement who started the debate. Now it’s our job to move that debate forward.
Now, I see it as my role to build on the work that they did and embed equality throughout our organization and the legal profession more widely. I want to move the narrative on, moving it along to equality.
Like all inequality, it starts with a group fighting back and refusing to accept poor treatment – but it has to move on to bringing everyone around the table, otherwise it remains a constant struggle of ‘us’ and ‘them’.
When we’re operating from the same page, which largely we are now (it’s rare to find someone who will say that a woman deserves less, just because she is a woman) the space for fighting for rights is less pronounced. Now it’s about working out how to achieve that shared goal of equality. We have to be asking new questions: How do we do it together? How can men contribute? How can everyone play their part? How can organizations not only remove barriers but also create a culture of real equality? And most importantly, how can we make this movement a thing that we no longer have to fight for? That’s what D&I success would look like to me, not having to debate it anymore, because it’s now a topic resigned to the history books.
