From the late 1960s well into the 1980s, much of the Left's energies focused on increasing diversity in the workplace, in the media and in the political realm. The 1972 Democratic convention's mandating quotas for minorites and women among delegates is perhaps the most salient example of this. Beginning with the late 1980s, however, a reversal started to take place, as some groups and intellectuals argued that talking about diversity (misleadingly called "identity politics") instead of economic inequality was dooming the Left to political irrelevance.
But a new study shows how short-sighted de-emphasizing diversity is. The Families and Work Institute interviewed 1100 companies over a ten-year period, and found that family friendly polices and diversity are intertwined. Simply put, employers with more women and minorities in top positions are more likely to offer flexible workplaces and benefits. Caregiving leave benefits, child and elder care assistance, health care--in every area, diverse companies scored higher.
In other words, increasing diversity helps all workers, and ignoring the issue to zone in on inequality doesn't make much sense. In the end, diversity and equality are like Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage": You can't have one without the other.
--Jordan Michael Smith
