Final Reflection （1000 words）

Write an entry of when the racial and/or ethnic identity of yourself or someone else became apparent to you. Consider how race/ethnicity was constructed in your social environment growing up, such as how race/ethnicity was discussed (or not discussed) in your family, in your community, in society, etc.
Students will complete a 1,000-word written reflection (excluding reference list) on how theories in this subject might inform the ways you see, experience, theorise, and practice diversity and inclusionLength: 1,000 words

Assessment criteria

The criteria used to assess student performance includes:

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Evocative reflection of personal experiences
Application of relevant theories
Critical analysis of diversity practices
Development of specific and compelling practices

L E C T U R E S L I D E S A R E N O T N O T E S

Lecture slides are designed to be visual aids for the live presentation.
Reading them cannot substitute for attending the lecture or listening to
recordings. Sometimes concepts and ideas presented are then critiqued

and challenged during lectures.

D I V E R S I T Y
A N D

I N C L U S I O N

Dr Helena Liu

2 1 8 8

Week

— Re-Radicalising Diversity and Inclusion

Photograph of the Civil Rights March on Washington,

th August, 1

63 courtesy of the
National Archives.

Last week in this subject, we explored the

interlocking systems of power that structure

our society and organisations. From a

sociological perspective, we examined how

organisations are gendered,

heteronormative and racialised.

REVIEW

REVIEW
IDENTITY
Dominant assumptions about ‘natural’ gender and

racial differences can belie the ways identities are

socially constructed and politically contested.

INDIVIDUALIST AND SYSTEMIC APPROACHES
(Neo)liberal interventions targeting individuals

treat inequality as an anomaly rather than a

deliberate function of power structures.

D E C O L O N I S I N G
D I V E R S I T Y

S E C T I O N

DECOLONISING DIVERSITY
For whom do we do diversity and for what purpose?

Is it only to increase organisational and performance

efficiencies? Is it to increase the career mobility of

professionals (or of academics)? Or is it to maintain

the socio-political status quo?

By critically asking and answering these questions,

we may begin to identify and challenge the

interlocking systems of power in our society.

PATRIARCHY
Key Components
Patriarchy comprises a complex and shifting set of power dynamics that

intersects multiple sites in culture and moves through us. It cannot be

reduced to a universalist binary between oppressors and the oppressed.

Rather, patriarchal ideology captures our imaginations and enlists all of us

as its agents (Foucault,

80).

“Wind Chill Effect”
The discrepancy between the amount of power held by men collectively

and the amount felt by individual men (Kimmel,

06).

Patriarchy in Organisations
Gender pay gap; gendered division of labour; ‘think manager think male’;

gendered violence; good old regular sexism as well as benevolent sexism;

hegemonic masculinity; and on and on.

One practice of patriarchy is the inscription

of a hegemonic masculine ideal that is then

transposed onto work and organisations as

the ideal worker and manager.

HEGEMONIC
MASCULINITY

HEGEMONIC
MASCULINITY
Hegemonic masculinity is what sociologist Raewyn Connell

(1987, 1995) defines as the currently most honoured way of

being a man. What constitutes hegemonic masculinity varies

across context. Within contemporary Western societies, the

practice of hegemonic masculinities is often described as

‘macho’, in other words, tough, competitive, assertive,

unemotional, self-reliant and heterosexual (Connell, 20

;

Donaldson and Tomsen, 2003; Gorman-Murray, 2013).

Masculinities
in Sydney

Australian
masculinities

DOING
MASCULINITY
Masculinity is not necessarily associated with those who

identify as men as gender is a social performance. Hegemonic

masculinity at work means that all professionals, regardless of

their gender identification, are compelled to perform their

identities in line with this ideal (Liu, 20

Although white, cis-gender, heterosexual, middle/upper class,

able-bodied men may more closely embody hegemonic

masculinity, their achievement of an elite status can never be

guaranteed and requires continual, careful regulation.

HETERO-
NORMATIVITY
Heteronormativity can be seen as an extension of patriarchal

gendered division of labour (Rich, 1980). Under these

circumstances, heterosexuality is socially constructed as a

neutral, ‘natural’ category of sexuality against which others,

most notably LGBTQ+ sexualities, are cast as ‘abnormal’,

‘unhealthy’ and ‘deviant’ (Warner, 1999).

A related concept is cisnormativity, which similarly marginalises

subjects who identify as gender diverse (Bauer et al., 2009).

Cisnormativity “describes the expectation that all people are cissexual,
that those assigned male at birth always grow up to be men and those
assigned female at birth always grow up to be women” (Bauer et al., 2009,
p. 356). This assumption is so pervasive that it otherwise has not yet been
named. See ‘Hetero-romantic love and heterosexiness in children’s G-
rated films’ (Martin and Kazyak, 2009).

HETERONORMATIVITY
HETEROSEXUAL PRIVILEGE

The concept is widely used “as shorthand for the numerous

ways in which heterosexual privilege is woven into the fabric

of social life, pervasively and insidiously ordering everyday

existence” (Jackson, 2006, p. 108). However, heterosexuality

regulates those kept within its boundaries as well as

marginalising those outside them (Jackson, 2006).

SOCIAL CONTROL

Heteronormativity “not only establishes a

heterosexual/homosexual hierarchy but also creates

hierarchies among heterosexualities”, resulting in

“hegemonic and subordinate forms of heterosexuality”

(Seidman, 2005, pp. 40).

Peter Cvjetanovic chants with fellow neo-Nazis and white nationalists in Charlottesville,

NC (from The Independent)

White supremacy is the centuries-old

racialised social system comprising the

“totality of the social relations and practices

that reinforce white privilege” (Bonilla-Silva,

2006, p. 9).

WHITE
SUPREMACY

WHITE
SUPREMACY
White supremacy operates in and through everyday racism to

maintain a strong positive orientation to “white superiority,

virtue, moral goodness, and action” (Feagin, 2013, p. 10; see also

Deitch et al., 2003; Essed, 1991; Hill, 2009; Nkomo and Al Ariss,

2014). It is not some aberrant and deviant attitude, but a

ubiquitous and integral part of work and social life.

An advertisement for Pears’ Soap, from the 1890s, instructing whites to promote cleanliness

among other races.

INTERSECTIONALITY
Before our class next week, an activity will be made available on Canvas

that allows you to apply intersectionality theory to analyse your own
standpoint. This activity will help you to complete your final Reflexive

Journal Task.

WEEK 5
Re-Radicalising Diversity and Inclusion

On decolonising diversity, queering

organisations and other forms of radical

love

Read the required readings, work on your

reflexive journal, download the lecture slides

and attend class.

NEXT CLASS

Demonstrators march through the streets during the Gay Liberation Day
parade in New York in 1971.

REFERENCES
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158.

Ahmed, S. (2012). On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Alvesson, M., Ashcraft, K.L. & Thomas, R. (2008). Identity matters: Reflections on the construction of identity
scholarship in organization studies. Organization, 15(1), 5–28.

Ashforth, B.E., Harrison, S.H. & Corley, K.G. (2008). Identification in organizations: An examination of four
fundamental questions. Journal of Management, 34(3), 3

–374.

Bauer, G.R., Hammond, R., Travers, R., Kaay, M., Hohenadel, K.M. & Boyce, M. (2009). “I don’t think this is theoretical;
this is our lives”: How erasure impacts health care for transgender people. Journal of the Association of Nurses in
AIDS Care, 20(5), 348–361.

Benschop, Y. (2001). Pride, prejudice and performance: Relations between HRM, diversity and performance.
International Journal of Human Resources Management, 12(7), 1166–1181.

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the
United States. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Bracey, C.A. (2008). Saviors or Sellouts: The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism, from Booker T. Washington to
Condoleezza Rice. Boston: Beacon Press.

* = the required
readings of the
topic

REFERENCES
Brown, A.D. (2015). Identities and identity work in organizations. International Journal of Management Reviews,

17(1), 20–40.

Calás, M.B., & Smircich, L. (2006). From the “woman’s point of view” ten years later: Towards a feminist organization
studies. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies (2nd ed., pp.
284–346). London: Sage.

Caza, B.B., Vough, H., & Puranik, H. (2018). Identity work in organizations and occupations: Definitions, theories, and
pathways forward. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(7), 889–910.

* Clare, E. (2001). Stolen bodies, reclaimed bodies: Disability and queerness. Public Culture, 13(3), 359–365.

Connell, R.W. (1987). Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Connell, R.W. (1995). Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Connell, R.W. (2002). Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Connell, R.W. (2014). Margin becoming centre: For a world-centred rethinking of masculinities. NORMA:
International Journal for Masculinity Studies, 9(4), 217–231.

Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination
doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139–167.

REFERENCES
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color.

Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.

Deitch, E.A., Barsky, A., Butz, R.M., Chan, S., Brief, A.P. & Bradley, J. (2003). Subtle yet significant: The existence and
impact of everyday racial discrimination in the workplace. Human Relations, 56(11), 1299–1324.

Donaldson, M. & Tomsen, S.A. (2003). Male Trouble: Looking at Australian Masculinities. Sydney: Pluto Press.

DuBois, W.E.B. (2005). The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Pocket Books.

Essed, P. (1991). Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory. Newbury Park: Sage.

Feagin, J.R. (2013). The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing. New York, NY:
Routledge.

Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge. New York: Pantheon Books.

Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies In Ethnomethodology. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Giroux, H.A. (2003). Spectacles of race and pedagogies of denial: Anti-Black racist pedagogy under the reign of
neoliberalism. Communication Education, 52(3/4), 191–211.

Gorman-Murray, A. (2013). Urban homebodies: Embodiment, masculinity, and domesticity in inner Sydney.
Geographical Research, 51(2), 137–144.

REFERENCES
Hill, J.H. (2009). The Everyday Language of White Racism. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Ignatiev, N. (1995). How the Irish Became White. New York: Routledge.

Ishizuka, K.L. (2016). Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties. Brooklyn: Verso.

Kanter, R.M. (1977). Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books.

Jackson, S. (2006). Gender, sexuality and heterosexuality: The complexity (and limits) of heteronormativity. Feminist
Theory, 7(1), 105–121.

Kimmel, M. (2006). Manhood in America (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Kirton, G., Greene, A. & Dean, D. (2007). British diversity professionals as change agents: Radicals, tempered radicals
or liberal reformers? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(11), 1979–1994.

Lewis, P., Benschop, Y., & Simpson, R. (2017). Postfeminism, gender and organization. Gender, Work and
Organization, 24(3), 213–225.

Liu, H. (2017). Sensuality as subversion: Doing masculinity with Chinese Australian professionals. Gender, Work and
Organization, 24(2), 194–212.

* Liu, H. (2020). Destruction. In H. Liu, Redeeming Leadership: An Anti-Racist Feminist Intervention (pp. 63–79).
Bristol: Bristol University Press.

REFERENCES
MacKinnon, C.A. (2013). Intersectionality as method: A note. Signs, 38(4), 1019–1030.

Martin, K. & Kazyak, E. (2009). Hetero-romantic love and heterosexiness in children’s G-rated films. Gender & Society,
23(3), 315–336.

Nagoshi, J.L., Nagoshi, C.T. & Brzuzy, S. (2014). Gender and Sexual Identity: Transcending Feminist and Queer
Theory. New York: Springer.

Nkomo, S.M. & Al Ariss, A. (2014). The historical origins of ethnic (white) privilege in US organizations. Journal of
Managerial Psychology, 29(4), 389–404.

* Noon, M. (2018). Pointless diversity training: Unconscious bias, new racism and agency. Work, Employment and
Society, 32(1), 198–209.

Overmyer-Velázquez, M. (2013). Good neighbors and White Mexicans: Constructing race and nation on the Mexico-
U.S. border. Journal of American Ethnic History, 33(1), 5–34.

Puar, J. (2011). “I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess”: Intersectionality, assemblage, and affective politics.
Transversal. Retrieved from http://eipcp.net/transversal/0811/puar/en

Rottenberg, C. (2014). The rise of neoliberal feminism. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 418–437.

Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs, 5(4), 631–660.

REFERENCES
* Rumens, N. (2017). Queering lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identities in human resource development

and management education contexts. Management Learning, 48(2), 227–242.

Seidman, S. (2005). From polluted homosexual to the normal gay: Changing patterns of sexual regulation in
America. In C. Ingraham (Ed.), Thinking Straight: New Work in Critical Heterosexuality Studies (pp. 39–62). New
York: Routledge.

Warner, M. (1999). The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. New York: The Free Press.

West, C. & Zimmerman, D.H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender & Society, 1(2), 125–151.

provided to you at UTS are protected by copyright.

You are not permitted to re-use those for commercial purposes

(including in kind benefit or gain) without permission of the

Improper or illegal use of teaching materials may lead to

prosecution for copyright infringement.

For further information on UTS copyright for students and

researchers see http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/about-us/policies-

guidelines/copyright-and-uts/copyright-students-and-

researchers

L E C T U R E S L I D E S A R E N O T N O T E S

and challenged during lectures.

D I V E R S I T Y
A N D

I N C L U S I O N

Dr Helena Liu

2 1 8 8

Week 3 — Re-Radicalising Diversity and Inclusion

Photograph of the Civil Rights March on Washington, 28th August, 1

63 courtesy of the
National Archives.

For whom do we do diversity and for what

purpose? Decolonising diversity requires

interrogating how power operates in and

through diversity management. The

systems of power that can be reinforced

through diversity practices include

patriarchy, heteronormativity and white

supremacy.

REVIEW

MULTIPLE CHOICE
QUIZ REVIEW

AGENDA
Week 5

• Queering organisations with Helen Taylor

• Anti-racist feminist futures

• Final Reflexive Practice Journal task

G U E S T S E M I N A R
W I T H H E L E N T AY L O R

S E C T I O N

1 0 M I N S B R E A K
S E C T I O N

A N T I – R A C I S T
F E M I N I S T F U T U R E S

S E C T I O N
12

Feminism — or really, feminisms — is both a

theoretical field and a political practice

aimed at ending the subordination of

women.

FEMINISM

FEMINISMS
Feminism is far from a unitary

movement. Rather, it is often

distinguished through its political

positions including:

1. Liberal feminisms;

2. Marxist feminisms;

3. Poststructuralist and

postmodernist feminisms;

4. Anti-racist and decolonial

feminisms; and

5. Queer theory.

WARNING: There are inherent

limitations in the use of

classifications. Namely, they

suggest a temporal and special

fixedness in each classification. It’s

therefore important to remember

that feminism is also a process,

with each category identified

being revised and reshaped.

Anti-racism is a theoretical field and a

political practice aimed at ending the

subordination of people of colour. Like

feminist movements, it comprises diverse

groups of people struggling to ameliorate

conditions for their community.

ANTI-RACISM

Justice is what love looks like
in public

— Cornel West“

ANTI-RACISM
Anti-racism challenges white supremacy through

scholarship and activism that encourages love for

people of colour; especially, for people of colour to

learn to love ourselves.

This resistance affects organisations because unless

we love people of colour, we are not going to think of

them as capable, reliable, intelligent, creative, etc.

(Bambara,

89; Yancy,

)

ALLYSHIP
PRIVILEGE AND BLAME
One of the privileges of whiteness is not having to acknowledge race

and thus believe that organisations and societies are meritocratic.

Under neoliberalism, we often insist that individuals wholly

responsible for their destinies. When we disconnect from the painful

realities of racism, structural disadvantages can be blamed on

people of colour themselves who are castigated for ‘playing the race

card’ and not working hard enough to achieve success for

themselves (DiAngelo, 2018).

Although the temptation can be strong to flee from discomfort,

education scholar Barbara Applebaum (2017) believes discomfort

can bear the possibility for personal and social transformation.

NOT A LABEL, BUT AN ONGOING PROCESS
Allyship cannot be achieved through quick fixes. It requires ongoing

critical self-reflection and analysis to resist the white supremacy that

is often taken-for-granted and normalised (see Swan, 2017).

REDOING
WHITENESS
Redoing whiteness requires interrogating everyday racist

practices. For example, we can name white power where it

exists but remains invisible, such as in conceptualisations of the

‘ideal worker’. We can open ourselves up to forming

meaningful relationships with people of colour so that diversity

becomes what we are, rather than just something we have.

(Liu, 2020; Swan, 2017)

WEEK 6
Your final Reflexive Practice Journal is due

next week, Monday 9:00am on Canvas

WHAT’S NEXT

REFERENCES
Applebaum, B. (2017). Comforting discomfort as complicity: White fragility and the pursuit of invulnerability.
Hypatia, 32(4), 862–875.

* Bambara, T.C. (1983). Foreword. In C. Moraga & G. E. Anzaldúa (Eds.), This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by
Radical Women of Color (2nd ed., pp. vi–viii). New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.

DiAngelo, R. (2018). White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Boston, MA: Beacon
Press.

Liu, H. (2020). Redeeming Leadership: An Anti-Racist Feminist Intervention. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

* Oluo, I. (2018). “I just got called racist, what do I do now?” and “Talking is great, but what else can I do?”. In I. Oluo,
So You Want to Talk About Race (pp. x–238). New York: Seal Press.

Swan, E. (2017). What are white people to do? Listening, challenging ignorance, generous encounters and the ‘not
yet’ as diversity research praxis. Gender, Work and Organization, 24(5), 547–563.

Yancy, G. (2018). Risking the white self. In G. Yancy, Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly about
Racism in America (pp. 55–93). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

* = the required
readings of the
topic

provided to you at UTS are protected by copyright.

You are not permitted to re-use those for commercial purposes

(including in kind benefit or gain) without permission of the

Improper or illegal use of teaching materials may lead to

prosecution for copyright infringement.

For further information on UTS copyright for students and

researchers see http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/about-us/policies-

guidelines/copyright-and-uts/copyright-students-and-

researchers

L E C T U R E S L I D E S A R E N O T N O T E S

and challenged during lectures.

D I V E R S I T Y
A N D

I N C L U S I O N

Dr Helena Liu

2 1 8 8 3

Week 2 — History and Politics of Diversity

Photograph of the Civil Rights March on Washington, 28th August, 1963 courtesy of the
National Archives.

MULTIPLE CHOICE
QUIZ REVIEW

H I S T O R Y & P O L I T I C S
O F D I V E R S I T Y

S E C T I O N

MULTICULTURALISM
Diversity is not what we are, but what Australia has (Hage, 1998).

Lanterns of the Terracotta Warriors by Xia Nan (2014)

Although this term has become increasingly

widespread, it has no single definition.

Diversity management is understood in

diverse ways in different countries and in

different organisations (Kramar, 2012).

‘DIVERSITY’

WORKFORCE 2000
This report published in the United States in 1987 was one of

the first to establish the notion of “managing diversity”.

Predictions
The report predicted that the proportion of white male entrants would

fall, while the numbers of women and people of colour would rise.

The Rise of Diversity Management
Academics and practitioners began to ask and answer how to effectively

manage diversity in the wake of these predictions. A wide range of

diversity management programmes were subsequently developed, not

only across organisations in the United States, but also in other countries

like Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand that anticipated similar

demographic trends.

(Johnston and Packer, 1987)

Managing diversity is an idea
whose time has come. More and
more corporations and
organisations are awakening to the
fact that a diverse workforce is not
a burden, but their greatest
potential strength — when
managed properly.”
— R. Roosevelt Thomas (1991, p. viii)

DIFFERENCES
1. Characteristics (e.g., gender, race, sexuality, dis/ability, age,

family responsibilities, personality, dress styles, working styles

and leisure pursuits);

2. Outcomes (e.g., performance and corporate social

responsibility agenda).

(Bertone and Leahy, 2001; Kramar, 2012)

In Australia, diversity management

overwhelmingly targets women as a group.

Dominant approaches have overlooked

other (intersecting) forms of inequality

(Beck, 2021), while progress towards gender

equality has also been slow.

WOMEN

We will explore
intersectionality

theory further next
week

DIVERSITY POLICIES
AND PRACTICES
Mixed Results
Due to the varied ways people understand diversity, the ‘success’ of these

policies and practices have been difficult to evaluate.

Resistance and Backlash
Diversity management is rarely embedded into the management

processes or culture (Kramar, 2012). Senior management have a tendency

to see diversity and inclusion as issues to be ‘solved’ by the particular unit

(Ahmed, 2007). Resistance, and sometimes backlash, remain a persistent

feature alongside diversity initiatives.

DIVERSITY ON
WHITE TERMS
While whiteness remains the organisational norm, notions of

racial diversity have in some ways become more desirable and

(visible) non-whiteness has become a commodity for

organisations to acquire and exploit.

Under what legal scholar Nancy Leong (2012, p. 2152) calls

“racial capitalism”, people of colour are defined in terms of the

social and economic value they provide to white people and

institutions. Diversity policies and practices have degraded

non-whiteness into an object to be “pursued, captured,

possessed and used” (Leong, 2012, p. 2155).

Studies of corporate websites have shown that diversity is instrumentally
adopted in organisations’ visual branding, where companies will often
overrepresent the diversity of their workforce via photographs. By
displaying numerous photographs of happy people of colour, companies
can use their bodies to present itself as cosmopolitan, progressive and
inclusive, irrespective of their actual policies and practices (Guerrier and
Wilson, 2011).

T H E P O L I T I C S O F
F E E L I N G G O O D

S E C T I O N

In contrast to gender and other
categories of identity, which are often
represented as sources of social
inequality in organisations, ‘diversity’
does not so powerfully appeal to our
sense of social justice.”
— Yvonne Benschop (2001, p. 1166)

The assumption that diversity can be

managed as if it is a human resource is

rooted in our ideology of multiculturalism.

For scholars like Benschop (2001),

organisational preferences for ‘diversity’ can

be a sign of the lack of commitment to

change.

DIVERSITY AS A
HUMAN RESOURCE

WARM AND FUZZY

Secures Rather Than Disrupts
Diversity, in certain contexts, can be a feel-good concept. It

paints the picture of happy people who look different working

together in harmony. It contains the threat of dissent as

“everyone is presented as harmless, friendly and positive”

(Swan, 2010, p. 92).

What Does ‘Diversity’ Conceal?
In individuating difference, the term diversity conceals

structural inequality born from systems of power.

POWER AND PRIVILEGE
Before our class next week, a video will be made available to watch on

Canvas that dives deeper into the power structures that diversity
management can conceal.

WEEK 3
Critical Approaches to Diversity

On body counts, rainbow-washing

and saviours

Read the required readings, work on your

reflexive journal, download the lecture slides

and attend class.

NEXT CLASS

REFERENCES
Ahmed, S. (2007). The language of diversity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(2), 235–256.

* Ahmed, S., & Swan, E. (2006). Introduction: Doing diversity. Policy Futures in Education, 4(2), 96–100.

Benschop, Y. (2001). Pride, prejudice and performance: Relations between HRM, diversity and performance.
International Journal of Human Resources Management, 12(7), 1166–1181.

Bertone, S. and Leahy, M. (2001). Social equity, multiculturalism and the productive diversity paradigm: Reflections
on their role in corporate Australia. In S. Philips (ed.) Everyday Diversity: Australian Multiculturalism and
Reconciliation (pp. 113–144). Melbourne: Common Ground Publishing.

Guerrier, Y., & Wilson, C. (2011). Representing diversity on UK company web sites. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:
An International Journal, 30(3), 183–195.

* Hage, G. (1998). Good white nationalists: The tolerant society as a white fantasy. In G. Hage, White Nation:
Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society (pp. 79–104). Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Johnston, W. and Packer, A. (1987). Workforce 2000: Work and Workers for the 21st Century. Indianapolis: Hudson
Institute.

Kramar, R. (2012). Diversity management in Australia: A mosaic of concepts, practice and rhetoric. Asia Pacific
Journal of Human Resources, 50(2), 245–261.

* = the required
readings of the
topic

REFERENCES
Leong, N. (2012). Racial capitalism. Harvard Law Review, 126(8), 2151–2224.

* Liu, H. (2017). Undoing whiteness: The Dao of anti-racist diversity practice. Gender, Work and Organization, 24(5),
457–471.

Swan, E. (2010). Commodity diversity: Smiling faces as a strategy of containment. Organization, 17(1), 77–100.

Thomas, R.R. (1990). From affirmative action to affirming diversity. Harvard Business Review, 68(2), 107–117.

Thomas, R.R. (1991). Beyond Race and Gender. New York: American Management Association.

provided to you at UTS are protected by copyright.

You are not permitted to re-use those for commercial purposes

(including in kind benefit or gain) without permission of the

Improper or illegal use of teaching materials may lead to

prosecution for copyright infringement.

For further information on UTS copyright for students and

researchers

see http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/about-us/policies-

guidelines/copyright-and-uts/copyright-students-and-

researchers

L E C T U R E S L I D E S A R E N O T N O T E S

and challenged during lectures.

D I V E R S I T Y
A N D

I N C L U S I O N

Dr Helena Liu

2 1 8 8

Week 3 — Critical Approaches to Diversity

Photograph of the Civil Rights March on Washington,

th August, 1

63 courtesy of the
National Archives.

Last week in this subject, we explored the

context of multiculturalism in Australia and

how it gave rise to current ideologies and

practices of diversity management. An

online video also introduced power and

privilege.

REVIEW

REVIEW
MULTICULTURALISM
White Australia haunts our treatment of diversity as a commodity to be

pursued, captured and used in ways that benefit white institutions.

INDIVIDUALISM
Psychological perspectives of power has kept attention on individuals

rather than structural forms of power.

WE ARE ALL DIVERSE
The term ‘diversity’ expanded beyond traditional disadvantaged groups

to include identifications such as education, corporate background and

personality. Diversity’s vagueness is its strength. As “‘diversity’ does not

so powerfully appeal to our sense of justice and equality” (Benschop,

01, p.

66), it has been more attractive to organisational elites (see also

Ahmed, 20

; Puar, 2011).

AGENDA
Week 3

• Power and privilege

• Identities in diversity management

• Individualist and systemic approaches to diversity

• Feedback on journal tasks and self-study

This lecture is about developing critical consciousness as members of society who
live and work together. Feelings of anxiety, discomfort, guilt and even anger may
surface, but they suggest learning and growth.

I D E N T I T I E S

S E C T I O N

Identities are individuals’ subjective

interpretations of who they are, based on

their socio‐demographic characteristics,

political identifications, roles, and group

memberships (Caza et al., 20

IDENTITY

IDENTITY
Identity “can be linked to nearly everything: from

mergers, motivation and meaning‐making to ethnicity,

entrepreneurship and emotions to politics,

participation and project teams” (Alvesson, Ashcraft

and Thomas, 2008, p. 5).

Our meanings of self are not fixed and static, but rather,

multidimensional and dynamic (Ashforth, Harrison and

Corley, 2008; Brown, 20

; Caza et al., 2018).

1. Collective (e.g., organisational,

occupational, etc.)

2. Role (e.g., ‘entrepreneur’, ‘leader’, etc.)

3. Personal (e.g., gender, racial, notion of

‘good worker’, etc.)

IDENTITY
14

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
OF GENDER
Gender was traditionally assumed to be a mandatory binary

system where humans are characterised as male or female at

birth based on the appearance of their external genitalia.

Traditional Assumptions
In this essentialist view, those born male are supposed to act ‘masculine’

and be sexually attracted to women and those born female are supposed

to act ‘feminine’ and be sexually attracted to men.

Society then applies “multiple methods of … reinforcement including

legal, religious and cultural practices to enforce adherence to these

gender roles” (Nagoshi, Nagoshi & Brzuzy, 2014, p.

). The socialisation of

this gender binary became viewed as ‘natural’ and thus left unquestioned

(Garfinkel,

67).

Relationships between men and women were primarily assumed to be

for reproduction, which reinforced a gender role schema.

However, in practice, gender roles have

changed over time based on the needs of

the culture. It is less rigid than the

traditional view suggests (Connell, 2002).

GENDER
IN PRACTICE

Two students at the Faculty of Medicine in Kabul in 1962

listening to their professor (at right) as they examine a

plaster cast showing a part of a human body.

GENDER AS PRACTICE
‘DOING’ GENDER

Social norms inform the mundane social practices and

behaviours that denote ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’ (West

and Zimmerman, 1987). Most of us ‘do’ our gendered

identity without thinking about it, but we were taught at

some time/place what it meant to be a ‘boy’ and ‘girl’.

Consequently, we monitor the gender ‘performances’ of

others and ourselves and move along a narrowly prescribed

path.

Sociologist Tristan Bridges gives a fascinating example of how we do
gender with wallets and purses:
http://creativesociology.blogspot.com/2011/08/doing-gender.html
VIDEO: Sociologist C.J. Pascoe discusses the roots of bullying and its
relationship with the enforcement of masculine stereotypes in young men
and boys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ha2kSDJ9dY (6mins).

It has been “conclusively demonstrated that

racial categories linking the physical, mental

and behavioural traits of selected individuals

to a hidden nature putatively shared by

them as a group are without scientific basis”

(Ingram, 2005, p.

3).

WHAT IS RACE?

Art from Nordisk familjebok (1904)

SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTION
OF RACE
Like gender, what it means to be ‘black’ and ‘white’ have

shifted over time across contexts. For example, Noel Ignatiev’s

(1995) work explored how Irish migrants in the U.S. ‘became’

white from the mid–19th Century.

Art from Harper’s Weekly.

SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTION
OF RACE
From 1850 to 1920, Mexicans were considered by definition

“white” in the United States. This changed during the Great

Depression and in 19

, the US Census officially separated

“Mexican” from “white” as an identity category and restricted

immigration as well as repatriated those already living in the

US (Overmyer-Velázquez, 2013).

José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco, Jr. (18

–1899)

served as Governor of California (1875). Official

portrait from the California State Capitol.

Race (and gender) is not only a

categorisation externally imposed on you by

others, but one that you can claim politically

for you and your community.

RACE
IN PRACTICE

The three races according to the German Meyers Konversations-
Lexikon of 1885-90.

“There was a time when the term ‘Asian American’ was not merely a
demographic category, but a fight you were picking with the world” —

Jeff Chang (in the foreword for Ishizuka, 2016, p. i).

For Asian Australian identities, see Ang (2014)

PHOTOGRAPH: Asian American protestors rally for Peter Yew in 1975
by Corky Lee. See a trailer for a documentary about the photographer,
Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story: https://vimeo.com/21

50495.

I N D I V I D U A L A N D
S Y S T E M I C A P P R O A C H E S

S E C T I O N
23

(NEO)LIBERALISM
Where societies come to be defined through market rationalities so that
economic considerations take precedence over democratic values, social

issues are translated into private matters and citizens are treated as
customers (Giroux, 2003).

LIBERAL
INTERVENTIONS
Focusing at the individual level, liberal interventions seek equal

rights, opportunities and compensation (Kirton, Greene &

Dean, 2007).

Individualisation
Individualised measures can mean that marginalised groups become

reframed as deficient (e.g., not ambitious enough) and targeted for

development.

Liberal values have more recently been co-opted into existing systems of

power (see postfeminism: Lewis et al., 2017; Rottenberg, 2014).

The traditional approach of looking at one identity at a time can also elide

intersectional considerations (Crenshaw, 1989; 1991).

POWER

1. Systemic

2. Institutionalised

3. Internalised

Power extends beyond interpersonal interactions.

GENDERED ORGANISATIONS
As important social phenomena, gender relations

influence the organisational functioning and the ways

we think about aims, strategy, values, leadership, and

so on (Calás and Smircich, 2006). This means shifting

from an individual-level perspective towards a

sociological perspective where we think of work and

organisations as being inherently gendered (Acker,

1990).

Our focus then shifts from counting the number of

‘men’ and ‘women’ in organisations, for example, to

power systems underpinning the structures of

organisations and societies (MacKinnon, 1982).

GENDERED
ORGANISATIONS
Gender differences are structured into organisations. Rosabeth

Moss Kanter (1977) argued that while organisations are defined

as a gender-neutral, even the earliest models of organisations

revealed a ‘masculine ethic’ where the traits assumed to

belong to men were seen to be key to effective management.

In other words, patriarchy as a system of power structures

organisations to maintain women’s experiences of

discrimination, exclusion, segregation and low wages (Acker,

1990).
28

RACIALISED
ORGANISATIONS
Like gender, organisations are inexorably racialised.

Racial inequality is not merely “in” organisations but “of” them,

as racial processes are foundational to organisational formation

and continuity (Ray, 2019).

Like gender, race is part of a wider system of power that is not

only institutionalised but internalised.

DOUBLE
CONSCIOUSNESS

W.E.B DuBois (2005, p. 9) explored

the consequences of living beneath

the white gaze through his concept

of ‘double consciousness,’ which he

described as “a peculiar sensation …

of always looking at one’s self

through the eyes of others, of

measuring one’s soul by the tape of

a world that looks on in amused

contempt and pity”.

The manifestations of double consciousness include a sense of one’s own
inferiority that can be seen in the black-on-black violence of both
traditional colonies and modern ghettos (Liu, 2020). It can also see
individuals endorse ideologies or policies that are repressive to one’s
group, as DuBois observed among his black contemporaries, like Booker T.
Washington, who argued for the black population to receive only
industrial training and be confined to manual labour. Part and parcel of
being a person of colour is about negotiating our double consciousness.
For a history of Black political conservativism in the United States, see
Saviors or Sellouts: The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism, from
Booker T. Washington to Condoleezza Rice by Christopher A. Bracey
(2008).

WEEK 4
Re-Radicalising Diversity and Inclusion

On decolonising diversity, queering

organisations and other forms of radical

love

Read the required readings, work on your

reflexive journal, download the lecture slides

and attend class.

NEXT CLASS

Demonstrators march through the streets during the Gay Liberation Day
parade in New York in 1971.

REFERENCES
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158.

Ahmed, S. (2012). On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Alvesson, M., Ashcraft, K.L. & Thomas, R. (2008). Identity matters: Reflections on the construction of identity
scholarship in organization studies. Organization, 15(1), 5–28.

Ashforth, B.E., Harrison, S.H. & Corley, K.G. (2008). Identification in organizations: An examination of four
fundamental questions. Journal of Management,

(3), 325–374.

Benschop, Y. (2001). Pride, prejudice and performance: Relations between HRM, diversity and performance.
International Journal of Human Resources Management, 12(7), 1166–1181.

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the
United States. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Bracey, C.A. (2008). Saviors or Sellouts: The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism, from Booker T. Washington to
Condoleezza Rice. Boston: Beacon Press.

* = the required
readings of the
topic

REFERENCES
Brown, A.D. (2015). Identities and identity work in organizations. International Journal of Management Reviews,

17(1), 20–40.

Caza, B.B., Vough, H., & Puranik, H. (2018). Identity work in organizations and occupations: Definitions, theories, and
pathways forward. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(7), 889–910.

* Clare, E. (2001). Stolen bodies, reclaimed bodies: Disability and queerness. Public Culture, 13(3),

9–365.