Researching diversity Article Swipe
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· 2019
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2019.1567241
· OA: W4255032135
The purpose of the researching diversity stream at the 32nd Association of Industrial\nRelations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ) Conference, hosted by the\nLaw School at the University of Adelaide, was to explore together the issues related to\ngender and other differences in contemporary workplaces. The papers selected each fit\nwith the overall conference theme ‘Jobs and changes in uncertain times’. They explain the\ndifficulties experienced by different groups due to their identity (Werth and Brownlow\n2018, 2). Uncertain times for different groups may be created by changes in technology,\nthe broadly disadvantaging attitudes of society or, more specifically, by the disadvantaging attitudes of others in workplaces. We can look at these issues from a forward-looking\nperspective or from an historical perspective. In particular, the aim was to gain a more\nnuanced understanding of the issues as experienced by individuals, who may or may not\nexhibit difference. Visible and invisible identities can provoke particular reactions from\ncolleagues when they are disclosed. Individuals who exhibit difference, for example, in\ntheir health status, migrant or racial background, gender, age or sexuality, risk being\nstigmatized or stereotyped in the labour market. Goffman shows that individuals with\nstigmatizing attributes are ‘very careful to show that in spite of appearances they are very\nsane, very generous, very sober, very masculine [or feminine]… in short they are… nice\npersons like ourselves in spite of the reputation of their kind’ (1986, 110).
