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Diversity within groups is a key concept in sociology and political science that refers to the degree of difference along socially significant identifying features among the members of a purposefully defined group, such as any group differences in racial or ethnic classifications, age, gender, religion, philosophy, politics, culture, physical abilities, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, gender identity, intelligence, physical health, mental health, genetic attributes, personality, behavior, or attractiveness. [1]
When measuring human diversity, a diversity index exemplifies the likelihood that two randomly selected residents have different ethnicities. If all residents are of the same ethnic group it is zero by definition. If half are from one group and half from another, it is 50. The diversity index does not take into account the willingness of individuals to cooperate with those of other ethnicities. [2]
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities affirms to "respect difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as human diversity and humanity" for protection of human rights of persons with disabilities. [3]
Political creeds which support the idea that diversity is valuable and desirable hold that recognizing and promoting these [ which? ] diverse cultures may aid communication between people of different backgrounds and lifestyles, leading to greater knowledge, understanding, and peaceful coexistence.[ citation needed ] For example, "Respect for Diversity" is one of the six principles of the Global Greens Charter, a manifesto subscribed to by green parties from all over the world. In contrast to diversity, some political creeds promote cultural assimilation as the process to lead to these ends.
This use of diversity in this sense [ which? ] also extends to American academy, where in an attempt to create a "diverse student body" typically supports the recruitment of students from historically excluded populations, such as students of African American or Latino background as well as women in such historically underrepresented fields as the sciences.[ citation needed ]
Corporations make commitments to diversity in their personnel both for reasons of brand halo and competitive advantage, but progress is slow. [15] [ clarification needed ]
Historically, women have been underrepresented in politics compared to men. Women's rights movements, such as feminism, have addressed the marginalization of women in politics. [16] Despite traditional doubts concerning female leadership, women have governed for at least a year in about one in four countries since 1960. [17]
Among the 61 Prime Ministers of the U.K. (Kingdom of Great Britain until 1801) there have been 3 women: Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), Theresa May (2016–2019), Liz Truss (2022).
There has been an increase in women taking on leadership roles in both the public and private sectors of many countries, including the United States. [18] However, there is still a "political gap" between men and women. Women are less likely than similarly situated men to consider running for office; less likely to run for office; less like to believe they are qualified to seek office; less likely to receive encouragement to run for office; and more likely to perceive a competitive, biased electoral environment. [19]
Administrations since Franklin Roosevelt's have placed aides and units charged with specific outreach to interests and constituencies in the "West Wing". [20] However, specific positions and units devoted to women did not appear in the White House Offices until the late 1960s under John F. Kennedy's administration. Kennedy appointed Esther Peterson to be assistant secretary of labor and direct the department’s Women’s Bureau. Peterson worked to pass the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and was one of many to urge Kennedy to create the President’s Commission on the Status of Women. After Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson named her to an additional post for consumer affairs. Johnson’s administration's efforts to boost the representation of women revolved around highlighting consumer issues. [20]
President Richard Nixon did not appoint a woman assistant to the President’s Task Force on Women’s Rights and Responsibilities, Nixon appointed Anne Armstrong to the most senior WHO position: counselor to the president with cabinet rank. However, she was overwhelmed along with her small staff of two people and did not get to focus on representing women. Her work didn’t particularly concern women’s rights, however, scholars agree that she was an important step for the White House to have female representation in the offices, she “brought a new perspective to White House deliberations ensuring that names of women were included as candidates for vacant positions”. Armstrong was one of the first women to have direct access to the president as a White House staffer. [20]
President Bill Clinton sought to build support among women more generally, especially following the 1990s healthcare debacle and the election of 1994, which the Democratic Party faced substantial losses. In 1995, the administration created the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach (OWIO). This was created to “better serve President Clinton’s constituents”. OWIO hosted many events and roundtable discussions and linked with many external organizations. The author states that these actions are symbolic representations. It was initially successful at connecting with women’s groups and providing their findings to the President. However, in 1996, OWIO’s activities substantially declined with the 1996 election and staff changes. [20]
Local governments in the United States certainly have experienced an upsurge in female participation in politics. The graph depicts the increase in female participation in mayoral elections from 1950 to 2005 (see below). [18] The graph utilizes a regression discontinuity design to mitigate the potential influence of city characteristics on the candidacy of women. The findings reveal that the gender of the mayor has no discernible effect on various policy outcomes, such as the scale of local government, the allocation of municipal resources, or crime rates. These conclusions hold true both in the short term and over extended periods. Despite this lack of policy divergence, female mayors exhibit heightened political efficacy, indicated by a notable increase in their incumbent advantage compared to male counterparts. It's worth noting that electing a female mayor didn't have a big impact on whether other women could win elections later on. Having a female mayor did not make it easier for other women to get elected as mayors or in local congressional races. [18]
Associations between women and integrity appear in Latin America where 32.6 percent of citizens in 2012 said that men are more corrupt as politicians while just 4 percent said women are more corrupt. [17] Explanations for this “pro-women” stereotype relate to women’s historical status as outsiders as well as their traditional identities as mothers.
Michelle Bachelet's 2006 election marked the beginning of a string of presidenta victories in Latin America. She set records for presidential popularity in Chile during her first term, and won reelection in one of the most lopsided contests in the country’s history. However, a scandal (Caso Caval) erupted in February 2015, where her daughter-in-law and son, Sebastián Dávalos, were accused of tax fraud. Dávalos was the Social-Cultural Director, a position traditionally reserved for first ladies. He resigned ten days later. [20]
Although Bachelet was never directly involved in the scandal, her approval ratings fell from 42 percent in the last quarter of 2014 to 36 percent in the first quarter of 2015 (the period immediately after Caso Caval erupted), 31 percent in the second quarter, and 27 percent in the third quarter. These numbers never fully bounced back, hitting 38 percent by February 2018. [17]
Rishi Sunak (since 2022) is the first non-white Prime Minister of the U.K.
In American politics, white men have often been represented more compared to people of color. There has only been one black president, Barack Obama. All of the other 44 U.S. presidents have been white men. In other sections of U.S. politics, the number of people of color represented has gradually increased each year since the 20th century. [21]
Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns are generally categorized under heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality, while asexuality is sometimes identified as the fourth category.
Gender includes the social, psychological, cultural and behavioral aspects of being a man, woman, or other gender identity. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures and gender expression. Most cultures use a gender binary, in which gender is divided into two categories, and people are considered part of one or the other ; those who are outside these groups may fall under the umbrella term non-binary. A number of societies have specific genders besides "man" and "woman," such as the hijras of South Asia; these are often referred to as third genders. Most scholars agree that gender is a central characteristic for social organization.
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
A gender role, or sex role, is a set of socially accepted behaviors and attitudes deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity, although there are exceptions and variations.
The LGBT community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBT activists and sociologists see LGBT community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBT community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBT community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBT community.
Identity politics is politics based on a particular identity, such as race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, caste, and social class. The term could also encompass other social phenomena which are not commonly understood as exemplifying identity politics, such as governmental migration policy that regulates mobility based on identities, or far-right nationalist agendas of exclusion of national or ethnic others. For this reason, Kurzwelly, Pérez and Spiegel, who discuss several possible definitions of the term, argue that it is an analytically imprecise concept.
The term "minority group" has different usages, depending on the context. According to its common usage, the term minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half, is a "minority". Usually a minority group is disempowered relative to the majority, and that characteristic lends itself to different applications of the term minority.
Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial or gender equality within a workplace or educational context. The effort of including a token individual in work or school is usually intended to create the impression of social inclusiveness and diversity.
Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability", where impairment was an impairment of an individual's mind or body, while disability was considered a social construct. This premise gave rise to two distinct models of disability: the social and medical models of disability. In 1999 the social model was universally accepted as the model preferred by the field. However, in recent years, the division between the social and medical models has been challenged. Additionally, there has been an increased focus on interdisciplinary research. For example, recent investigations suggest using "cross-sectional markers of stratification" may help provide new insights on the non-random distribution of risk factors capable of exacerbating disablement processes. Such risk factors can be acute or chronic stressors, which can increase cumulative risk factors The decline of immune function with age and decrease of inter-personal relationships which can impact cognitive function with age.
Intersectionality is a sociological analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, height, age, weight and physical appearance. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing. However, little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the practical uses of intersectionality.
Gender inequality is the social phenomenon in which people are not treated equally on the basis of gender. This inequality can be caused by gender discrimination or sexism. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms prevalent in the society. Some of these distinctions are empirically grounded, while others appear to be social constructs. While current policies around the world cause inequality among individuals, it is women who are most affected. Gender inequality weakens women in many areas such as health, education, and business life. Studies show the different experiences of genders across many domains including education, life expectancy, personality, interests, family life, careers, and political affiliation. Gender inequality is experienced differently across different cultures.
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, to more than one gender, or to both people of the same gender and different genders. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, which is also known as pansexuality.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Marshall Islands may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in the Marshall Islands since 2005, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity has been outlawed in all areas since 2019. Despite this, households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex married couples, as same-sex marriage and civil unions are not recognized.
Social privilege is an advantage or entitlement that benefits individuals belonging to certain groups, often to the detriment of others. Privileged groups can be advantaged based on social class, wealth, education, caste, age, height, skin color, physical fitness, nationality, geographic location, cultural differences, ethnic or racial category, gender, gender identity, neurodiversity, physical disability, sexual orientation, religion, and other differentiating factors. Individuals can be privileged in one area, such as education, and not privileged in another area, such as health. The amount of privilege any individual has may change over time, such as when a person becomes disabled, or when a child becomes a young adult.
Gender inequality in the United States has been diminishing throughout its history and significant advancements towards equality have been made beginning mostly in the early 1900s. However, despite this progress, gender inequality in the United States continues to persist in many forms, including the disparity in women's political representation and participation, occupational segregation, and the unequal distribution of household labor. The alleviation of gender inequality has been the goal of several major pieces of legislation since 1920 and continues to the present day. As of 2021, the World Economic Forum ranks the United States 30th in terms of gender equality out of 149 countries.
Women in Guyana are a cross-section of Asian, African, and indigenous backgrounds. British colonization and imperialism have contributed to the sexism against Guyanese women in the household, politics, and education.
In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer. In the visual and aesthetic presentations of narrative cinema, the male gaze has three perspectives: that of the man behind the camera, that of the male characters within the film's cinematic representations; and that of the spectator gazing at the image.
Gender and sexual diversity (GSD), or simply sexual diversity, refers to all the diversities of sex characteristics, sexual orientations and gender identities, without the need to specify each of the identities, behaviors, or characteristics that form this plurality.
Identity safety cues are aspects of an environment or setting that signal to members of stigmatized groups that the threat of discrimination is limited within that environment and / or that their social identities are welcomed and valued. Identity safety cues have been shown to reduce the negative impacts impact of social identity threats, which are when people experience situations where they feel devalued on the basis of a social identity. Such threats have been shown to undermine performance in academic and work-related contexts and make members of stigmatized groups feel as though they do not belong. Identity safety cues have been proposed as a way of alleviating the negative impact of stereotype threat or other social identity threats, reducing disparities in academic performance for members of stigmatized groups, and reducing health disparities caused by identity related stressors.
A coalitional identity is an identity which includes multiple unique identity groups that are in community with one another in order to pursue greater political power and liberation.