Inclusion Round-Up | March 2023

Contents:

• International Women’s Day
• Drag queen story hour protests
• British Academy Film Awards – #BAFTAsSoWhite
• Allyship and coalition

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day takes place every 8th March. The International Women’s Day theme this year is Embrace Equity. Equity – ensuring the systems and support are in place for everyone to succeed – is an apt theme for 2023. We’re simultaneously seeing crucial social change and increasing intolerance and violence towards minoritised groups. Embracing equity reminds us that we don’t set off from the same starting block, so there is work to do to ensure a fair race. 

In February, the UK government announced that 40% of Directors at the UK’s largest listed companies were women last year – meeting the target 3 years ahead of schedule. This is important and positive progress. However, change at the top isn’t everything. A common challenge women in leadership positions face is the ‘glass cliff’ effect: where a woman or other minoritised group are recruited into a high-profile role in an already toxic culture or underperforming business and essentially made a scapegoat for not meeting impossible goals. Less drastic is the implicit assumption that a senior leader from a minority group – whether that be due to gender, race, disability or other marginalised identities is

1. interested in leading and taking responsibility for inclusion and diversity work in the organisation and
2. has the depth of expertise to lead it.

More women at the top is progress, but it’s a means to an end, not the end itself. Women and other minority groups are often still missing from senior positions and face more hurdles to succeed. True inclusion requires a holistic view of your organisation and creating change over time. Our IES accreditation is designed to support you in auditing every aspect of your business through an inclusion lens, with guidance from our inclusion experts to help you shape your next steps. 

Drag queen story hour protests

As I write this, a protest at the Honor Oak Pub in South London (not far from where I used to live) took place last weekend against a drag queen story hour. Thankfully, hundreds of counter-protestors loudly outnumbered the far-right group of around 30 people. Sadly this protest is part of increasingly organised attacks on LGBTQ+ events by hate groups. They see LGBTQ+ rights, particularly trans rights, as a’ wedge issue’ they can use to raise their profile. Hope Not Hate has written about British far-right groups mobilising around this issue: “Stop Drag Queen Story Hour”: a new far-right campaign emerges – HOPE not hate

#BAFTAsSoWhite

The 76th British Academy Film Awards were held on 19th February 2023. The nominations list included a wide range of actors, but the winners were almost all white. 

“A groundbreaking diversity review made a sweeping number of changes that have inserted jury involvement across the performance and directing categories to ensure a diverse group of nominees. But on Sunday night, the results spoke for themselves. […]inclusive nominees is one thing: if they don’t win, has the needle really moved that much, if at all?” Variety

On the one hand, the frustration felt by people of colour in the British film industry at this result is entirely valid. However, it also reminds us that just like having more women at Board level, inclusion and equity cannot be achieved with one action or ‘initiative’. The whole system needs to change –from who receives funding and mentorship at the start of their career through to the top levels of Hollywood. That change will take time. As with women in leadership, we need to look at the whole creative industry at every level to remove barriers and promote talent equitably. And crucially, commit to that change over the years it takes for our actions to embed.  

And finally: allyship and coalition

I choose to remain hopeful that we are moving in the right direction, despite the current climate. We’re seeing a vocal (and organised) minority pushing back against a diversifying world. Many factors have likely influenced this pushback, such as a global increase in far-right rhetoric preying on people’s emotional responses to climate change, global pandemics and the cost of living crisis. How do we keep on track? One of the books I read last year in my anti-racism book group was ‘What White People Can Do Next’ by Emma Dabiri. I loved her argument about going further than allyship and aiming for a coalition; we must identify shared interests across groups, identities and perspectives and work together to challenge unequal and discriminatory systems.  

Considerations moving forward 

As we approach the end of the fiscal year, consider using your budget for equity & impact in the following ways: 

• Inclusive Employers Membership – We are the trusted I&D expert for over 400 organisations – Inclusion and Diversity Membership – Inclusive Employers
• CMI qualification to ensure you’re leading I&D to your full effectiveness; Read our blog, which explores the benefits of our inclusion and diversity qualifications.
• Use our Six-Pillars of Inclusion framework when you sign up for our Inclusive Employers Standard (IES), which enables you to conduct a whole-system review of your organisation and provide expert action-focused guidance for improvement.
• Sign up for our Bitesize inclusion toolkit for team learning, and start implementing structured bitesize inclusion conversions within your organisation.