Diversity Digest

Promotion rates, When Harry Met Sally, and Slack for women

This week in diversity and inclusion (or exclusion) as seen on the internet…

Have any questions or want to discuss something here or elsewhere on the world wide web? Let’s talk.

Recently:

• This Is How Everyday Sexism Could Stop You From Getting That Promotion, The New York Times

  

• The Quiet Cruelty of When Harry Met Sally, The Atlantic

According to the 'Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang,' 'When Harry Met Sally' popularized the term high-maintenance in American culture. But the term today does precisely what it did 30 years ago, writes Megan Garber: "It serves as an indictment of women who want. It neatly captures the absurdity of a culture that in one breath demands women do everything they can to “maintain” themselves and, in the next, mocks them for making the effort."

• The Student Body Is Deaf and Diverse. The School’s Leadership Is Neither., The New York Times

Black deaf students obtain undergraduate, master’s or Ph.D. degrees at about half the rate of Black hearing students, and half the rate of white deaf students, according to another 2019 report by the National Deaf Center.

• What Slack Does for Women, The Atlantic

Of course, I still want my colleagues to like me, so I still bend a knee to gender norms. I simply say what needs to be said in Slack, throw in an exclamation point and a nice emoji, and call it a day. It’s much easier to perform your gender with a dancing penguin than by “power posing” or whatever. And best of all, Slack breaks the double bind, in which women are disliked for being either too assertive or too nurturing. No one thinks the happy cowboy (🤠) is pushy. No one would damn the joy cat (😹) with the faint praise of being “likable enough.” All this Slacking appears to be working, because for the first time, the performance review that we had in the middle of the Slack-heavy pandemic called me “friendly.”

• U.S. women are largely dissatisfied with how they’re treated. Most men don’t see a problem., The Lily

• Helen Keller and the Problem of ‘Inspiration Porn’, The New York Times

Can’t access these articles because of a paywall? Try Incognito mode. :)

Quick hits:

Axios @axios

AMC Theatres announced it will add onscreen captioning to 240 locations across the U.S. to make movies more accessible for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

trib.alAMC adds onscreen captions to 240 locations across the U.S.Disability rights advocates have pushed to make theaters more accessible.

^and I’ll add helpful to the approximately 80% of closed caption users who have no hearing disability but simply find captions effective for understanding speech

Adam Grant @AdamMGrant

One of the reasons women are underrepresented in leadership positions: they’re less likely to apply. New data: we can reduce the gender gap by changing the default. Instead of expecting people to opt in for promotions, consider everyone who's qualified unless they opt out.