AP HRM 3450 – Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Reading Notes

Module 1: [EDI Basics] From September 22nd to 29th

Chapter 1: Introduction to Diversity in Organizations (E-Book #1)

Organizational context is important in determining diversity’s effect on performance. Properly

managed, diversity and inclusion can benefit organizations in the areas of cost, resource
acquisition, marketing, creativity, etc.

What is Diversity

Diversity (real or perceived differences among people in personal attributes) is defined as real or
perceived differences among people in such areas as race, ethnicity, sex, age, physical and
mental ability and other identity-based attributes that affect their interactions and relationships

 These focal areas encompass differences that are based on power or dominance relations
among groups, particularly “identity groups” which are the collectives people use to
categorize themselves and others

Note: the definition of diversity includes the terms real and perceived to acknowledge the social
constructs of many areas of difference.

Social classes – referring to those who occupy a similar position in the economic system of
production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in industrial societies meets
some of the key criteria for inclusion.

Employment discrimination
 The valuation in the labour market of personal characteristics of applicants and workers
that are unrelated to productivity
o In other words, it occurs when personal characteristics of applicants and workers
that are unrelated to the productivity are valued in the labour market

Access discrimination:
 Occurs when people are denied employment opportunities, or ‘access’ to jobs because of
their memberships

Treatment discrimination:
 Occurs when people are employed but treated unfairly on the job, receiving fewer
rewards, resources, or opportunities than they should receive based on job-related criteria

Productive Characteristics:
  Such as performance, education, skills and tenure, are treated differently because of
factors such as race, ethnic origin, sex, age, physical ability, religion and immigration
status
Regardless of the intent or source, the outcome of discrimination is that members of some groups
are systematically disadvantaged while others are advantaged

It is also significant to ensure that different employees are also included (inclusion_- the degree
to which the different voices of a diverse workforce are respected and heard). Valuing diversity
refers to diversity and inclusion

Terminology

Ethnicity:
 Ethnicity refers to a shared national origin or a shared cultural heritage
 Thus, “Hispanic” is an ethnic description, although it is often treated as a racial one

Dominant/non-dominant groups

Changing Demographics and Changing Views: The Stimulus for Diversity and Studies Work

Changing socio-economic times from the 1900s to 2000s meant new workers entering the
workforce.
 The term net new entrants – refers to the difference between those who entered the
workforce and those who left the workforce

Economic changes and globalization have resulted in more service-oriented jobs and more
international customers and business relationships. These changes in types of the jobs make
awareness of efforts to understand and to learn to interact with those who are dissimilar more
critical than ever

Diversity and Racial Hierarchies

Data show that over the years, the major strides are from white men and female in higher ranking
jobs. Black women and men have been disproportionally higher represented in positions where
they manage similar others.

These findings are supportive of greater diversity, but also of glass ceilings, racial and gender
segregation and racial hierarchy

In multi-racial hierarchy, there is indeed diversity but without equality and inclusion.

Diversity and Organizational Competitiveness

Cox and Blake proposed that there are six specific business-related reasons that organizations
should value diversity.
 a) Cost

 Employee turnover
o The costs associated with doing a poor job of integrating workers from different
backgrounds can be extremely high
o Organizational efforts to support diversity can enhance commitment and reduce
intentions to quit even when employees perceive discrimination
o Organizations should take proactive measures to address and circumvent these
negative outcomes of diversity while maximizing the positive outcomes
o Costs associated with turnover include exit interviews, lost productivity while
positions are vacant, recruiting costs, etc.
 Litigation (Getting sued)
 Lost business
o When employees or customers learn of or personally experience unfair treatment
toward their group by an organization, they are less likely to want to work there or
patronize it

b) Resource Acquisition

 An organization’s ability to attract and retain employees from different backgrounds is

referred to as resource acquisition
 Cox and Blake proposed that if an organization develops a reputation for valuing all types
of workers, it will become known as an employer choice, increasing its ability to compete
for employees

c) Marketing

 Consumers who appreciate fair treatment for everyone will be more likely to patronize
an organization known to value diversity and to treat all workers fairly
 In addition, having employees who are from various backgrounds improves a company’s
marketing ability as the org. will be better able to develop products that meet the needs
of and appeal to diverse consumers

d) Creativity and Problem Solving

 Research indicates that groups composed of people from different backgrounds bring
with them differences that result in greater creativity and problem solving

e) System Flexibility

 System flexibility is another reason proposed for valuing diversity, in that it provides
organizations with a competitive advantage (for example: bilingualism)

Other Areas Where Diversity Can Be Advantageous

 Cooperative behaviours
  Interaction effects with organizational strategy (growth strategy)
 Financial returns
 Moral and social reasons

Diversity, Individual Outcomes, and Organizational Effectiveness

 Cox proposed that diversity climate of an organization affects individual outcomes,

which then influence organizational effectiveness
 The diversity climate is the tone set by the organization and sensed by its members with
regard to the value and role of diversity

Chapter 2: Theories and Thinking About Diversity (E-Book #1)

What is “Minority?”

Minority or non-dominant groups are those subordinated to majority or dominant group members
in terms of power, prestige and privilege.
 For example., throughout the world, men are the dominant sex although women may
outnumber men
  Scientists propose that non-dominant group members have distinguishing characteristics
across societies and time.
 The problem with dominant groups is decision making – and how it can influence
minority groups

Anthony and Rosalind Dworkin propose that minority group members have four common
characteristics:
 Identifiability
 Differential power
 The experience of discrimination
 Group awareness

Identifiability

 For subordinating systems to work, minority and majority group members must possess
distinguishing physical or cultural traits that make it possible to single them out for
differential treatment.
 Historical records suggest that dominant groups devise means to identify non-dominant
groups if the members have no distinguishing features
 Ease of identifiability facilitates singling people out for differential treatment
 A related concept to identifiability is stigma. – referred to as “marks” or deviations from
the desired norm or typical individual in a particular context. Certain stigma can be
“evidence on the spot, including”:
o Various physical deformities
o “Blemishes of individual character”
o “Tribal stigma of race, nation and religion which can be transmitted through
lineages and equally contaminate all members of a family.”

Differential Power

 Dworkin define power as the “actual use of resources to influence and control others.”
 Differential power allows those who have more power to control those who have less
power
 Although power is associated with numerical domination, those who are members of
groups that are larger in number are not always the most powerful
 Through their control of resources – they can dominate

Discrimination

 Mostly what minority groups face

 Discrimination has been broadly defined as differential and pejorative actions that serve
to limit the social, political or economic opportunities of members of a particular group
o Employment discrimination/labour market discrimination
Group Awareness
  This is the consequence from the dominant groups – the unfair treatment towards
minority group experience leads them to realize that they are subjected to differential
treatment imply because of their group membership

Categorization and Identity

What is prejudice?
 Irrationally based, negative attitudes about certain groups and their members
o Prejudice is an attitude, whereas discrimination is behaviour
 Discriminatory behaviour may result from prejudice

What are stereotypes?

 Stereotypes are the overgeneralization of characteristics to large human groups and are
often the basis for prejudice and discrimination
o Prescriptive stereotyping – how people should behave, based on their group
memberships (women should wear makeup)
o Descriptive stereotyping – refers to how ideas about how people do or will
behave, based on their group membership (women are caring)
 In job related context, stereotyping can prevent individuals who would be capable,
committing workers from being hired, promoted or trained

Social Categorization and Stereotyping

 Social cognitive theory suggests that people use categorization to simplify and cope with
large volumes of information to which they are continually exposed – which once again,
can lead to particular thoughts about certain races
o An example – sorting job candidates based of certain characteristics (For example
– if their name is male or female, what ethnicity they may belong to, etc.)
 People’s propensity to categorize coupled with the need to evaluate the
person categorized, leads to stereotyping
 Referred to as social categorization
 Social categorization – involves ordering one’s social environment by groupings of
persons
o In-groups/out-groups
 Social identity – refers to the part of an individual’s self-concept that derives from his or
her membership in a particular social group and the value and emotional significance
attached to that group membership

Note: we tend to see members of our in-groups as being heterogenous, with different
characteristics and out-group members as being homogenous

The problem comes when in-groups get favoritism + power

Attribution Errors
Attributions errors are the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and
overestimate the influence of internal factors when evaluating the behaviours of others, also
occurring during in-group and out-group evaluations.

Example – if a female is hired and does successfully in all of the components (interview, test,
etc.) she may be considered an outlier. But if she performs well and is hired, the dominant group
can say she was hired because the organization ‘needed’ her for diversity.

Multiple Group Memberships

 Each person has multiple group memberships, including racial, ethnic and age and others.
 Multiple group memberships make relationships among in-groups and out-groups and
social identities quite complex

Non-Dominant Groups as in the In-Group

When non-dominant groups are in-group, the results of social categorisation pf people into in-
groups and out-groups are different:
 Women for example may view other women as having positive attributes and prefer them
to men

Also, possible that non-dominant group members may “buy in” to negative stereotypes about
their group and prefer the dominant one.
 Internalized racism//sexism

Stereotype-threat:
 Revolves around the negative messages about one’s group and occurs when one is
concerned about being judged by a negative stereotype about one’s group
o Impacts performance and achievement

Aversive Racism, Ambivalent Sexism, and Other New – ISMS

Aversive racism – occurs when those who ostensibly adhere to egalitarian values and believes to
be unprejudiced still possess negative feelings and beliefs about racial issues and minority group

New Racism:
 New racism includes beliefs that racism is a thing of the past and Blacks have attained
excessive, unfair gains through programs such as affirmative action. New racists do not
display overt racism.

Ambivalent sexism:
 Is the simultaneous holding of both hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs about women

Neosexism:
  Similar to aversive racism: it occurs when people reported egalitarian values conflict with
their negative attitudes towards women

Recommendations for Individuals and Organizations

Awareness of these processes is an important step, as is organizational support of equity.

Because of aversive racism, efforts to change their prejudices are necessarily different from
attempts to change those who openly knowledge and express over prejudice.

Recommendations to fix these issues:

 Lead aversive racists to see the inconsistencies in their behaviours and their stated values,
thereby developing cognitive dissonance, and the desire to reduce it
 Engage group members in activities to achieve common, superordinate goals
 Encourage groups to perceive themselves as members of a single, superordinate group

Chapter 1: Diversity, Oppression, and Privilege (E-Book #2)

Today, we use the concept of diversity to refer to the social construction of differences or special
event, a human resource strategy or a value in a mission statement, a corporate strategic
objective, policy, etc.

The Celebratory Approach

One of the key challenges of contextualizing diversity in Canada has been its use as a celebratory
paradigm that fails to address unequal power relations and histories of social exclusion,
discrimination, privilege and oppression.

While there has been a great stride forward in Canada, such as introducing the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms, there are also other issues. This includes when racialized and ethnic
communities were treated as archetypes, not individuals – viewing superficial differences as
exotic

The Difference Approach

As key challenge of contextualizing diversity in Canada is rooted in the social construction of

differences in a manner that serves to keep the standards of the dominant group intact

The danger here is that certain characteristics become valued and create privilege, while others
ones are devalued and result in marginalization, therefore creating oppression.

The difference approach fails to address unequal power relations and is often amnesic of
histories of social exclusion and oppression in Canada.

Anti-Oppression and Critical Social Theory

Critical social theory is a macro theory interested in those who are oppressed, which critiques
social structures that exploit and marginalize members of a society and whose goal is liberation
from oppression.

The Nature and Dynamics of Oppression

Oppression is a complex and multidimensional social phenomenon that involves the intentional
and unintentional domination of non-dominant groups in a society by powerful dominant groups.

Oppression occurs when a person’s real or perceived membership in a group results in their
exclusion from full participation and active citizenship in society and oppression also occurs
through the denial of opportunities and rights that the dominant group takes granted for.

Oppression can be achieved through:

 Victim blaming
 Stereotyping
 Essentialism
 Mind is right
 Myth of meritocracy
 Belief of survival of the fittest

Multiple Levels of Oppression

People experience and resist oppression that occurs on three levels: the personal biography level,
the group or community level of the cultural context, and the structural level.

Whenever an issue of discrimination or oppression takes place, we need to consider all three of
these levels and how they interact and influence one another.

 Oppression at the personal level usually involves negative stereotypes or prejudice

towards members of a non-dominant group
 Oppression at the group or community level of the cultural context involves dominant
groups creating and maintaining hierarchical divisions of race, class, gender, ability and
so on and impose its own culture as superior.
 Oppression at the structural level comprises the ways in which oppression is
institutionalized and legitimated in society (laws, policies, etc.)

Intersectionality and the Matrix of Oppression

The concept of intersectionality is used to describe how forms of oppression associated with
aspects of social identity are viewed as interlocking systems rooted in cultural and historical
context

 An intersectional paradigm illuminates the ways in which different forms of oppression

are all interconnected and therefore cannot be viewed separately from one another
Unpacking Our Privilege

Privilege is often the flip side of oppression, and it’s the unearned advantages that confer
dominance and is based on membership in a particular social group

Privilege also confers dominance by giving one group power over another. For oppression to
occur, there needs to be a privileged and oppressed group.

Journey Towards Justice and Equity

Social Justice:
 When analyzing oppression as a social justice issue, it is important to consider the social
structures, processes and practices associated with class, gender, sexuality, race, age,
ability and other patterns of inequality that contribute to oppression in the first place
 When your goal is social justice, you try to also change the structural policies or practices
that created the inequalities in the first place
  Distributive and redistributive social justice is concerned with the fair allocation of
resources among diverse groups in a community

Equity versus Equality

Equality: Fairness and justice achieved through the same treatment

Equity: Principle based on fairness, justice, access and opportunity and advancement for
everyone, while recognizing historically undeserved and unrepresented populations, identifying
conditions needed to provide effective opportunities for all groups, and eliminating barriers to
their full participation.

Module 2: [Gender] From Sept 29th to October 20th

Chapter 4: Sex and Gender (E-Book #1)

Women are overrepresented in lower-paid job, and underrepresented in higher job paying
Note:
 Sex is constructed as biological: males have XY chromosomes and females have XX
chromosomes
 Gender refers to perceptions of how men and women and boys and girls should behave
 Both sex and gender influences outcomes of individual lives

Relevant Legislations
 The Equal Pay Act of 1963
o Attempted to address overt sex-based pay disparities
 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
o Prohibited discrimination against women in employment, including hiring, firing,
promotions, etc.
 Executive orders for Affirmative Action
o Going further than passive prohibition against affirmative action,
 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978
 EEOC Guidelines on Sexual Harassment of 1980
 The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
o Provides job security while allowing women (and men) to take time off for family
needs and to be assured of a job afterward
 The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Play Act of 2009
o Prohibited pay discrimination based on sex

Sex Segregation
 Sex segregation occurs when members of one sex constitute 70% or more of the
incumbents in a job or occupation, characterizes women’s employment and is a
significant contributor to the male/female wage gap
 More male-dominated jobs – which tend to pay higher as well

Income:
 Despite the fifty-years existence of Equal Pay Act and Title VII prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of sex, women still earn significantly less than men
 The female-to-male earnings ratio remains less than 80% - despite the increases in
women’s education and participation

Gender Role Socialization (GRS)

 Gender role socialization is one of the prominent reasons for the persistence of sex
discrimination, women’s lower wage levels, sex segregation and other unequal gender-
based treatment
 GRS is the process by which social institutions form and shape expectations of
acceptable behaviours for males and females
o Children learn appropriate gendered behaviours through imitation, modeling, and
reward and punishment by others
  Socialization affects women’s treatment in organizations, career “choices” and paths, and
women’s responsibilities outside of work
 Takes away the power of Equal Pay Act
 Girls and boys who deviate from their appropriate gender roles and penalized by
relatives, friends, teachers, employers and others in society

Gender-job steering:
 Occurs when employers steer applicants to job deemed appropriate for someone of their
sex
 Example – when a woman and a man apply at the same time – women is steered towards
the secretary position while the man works in management
 Organizations should pay their own workers fairly and resist sex segregated assignments,
whether by gendered “choices”, steering or stereotypes

Sex Discrimination
 Title VII of the CRA of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in employment-
related matters
 Although hard to prove, sex-based discrimination occurs with some frequency, fueled by
stereotypes and gender-role socialization, among other factors.
o Disparate treatment – on the basis of sex occurs when an applicant or employee,
typically a woman, is intentionally treated differently than a male is treated
 Disparate or adverse impact can occur when an employer apparently neutral policy or
practice negatively affects a person’s (typically women) employment opportunities
 Some jobs that are male dominated – for example: policing and firefighting, may even
have an advantage by incorporating females into it

Sexual Harassment
 Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in the workplace and is a
form of discrimination – only 25% of cases are solved with merit
 The courts have recognized two forms of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile
environment
o In quid pro quo harassment, managers and supervisors or others with authority
make sexual demands and submission to or rejection of those demands is used as
a basis for employment decisions
o In hostile environment harassment, unwelcome sexual conduct has the “purpose
or effect of unreasonably interfering with job performance, or creating an
intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.”
 More common
 Researchers who study sexual harassment have refined the EEOC concepts, and propose
three forms:
o Sexual coercion (quid pro quo harassment)
o Unwanted sexual attention (part of the hostile environment)
o Gender harassment (part of the hostile environment)

The Glass Ceiling and Other Glass Boundaries

The invisible barriers of prejudice and discrimination that prevents women, people of color, and
people with disabilities from progressing beyond a certain level in an org. is termed as glass
ceiling
 However, researchers suggest a better term – sticky floors – which doesn’t even let
women pass beyond the basic levels (first or second management positions in orgs.)

The term glass wall refers to the invisible barriers that constrain women, people of color, and
people with disabilities to certain occupations and positions within organizations.

The term glass escalator refers to men’s rapid ascent into management and higher-level
positions after entering female-dominated positions.

Glass cliff occurs when women are ore likely to obtain leadership positions of in time of crisis or
decline, with a high risk of failure, than in other situations

Recommendations for Individuals and Organizations

Knowledge of sex and gender issues is an important first step in making changes to address them

 To reduce salary differences arising from lower levels of education, individual women
should complete college and obtain advanced degrees if possible
 Should also be intra-organization and men support.
 Women and men managers should mentor women employees, having them gain jobs and
organization-appropriate skills for advancement
 Committed organizational leadership and vigilance are critical in shaping behaviours and
attitudes
 The presence of women in managerial and leadership positions is particularly important
when dealing with gender issues in the organization

Chapter 8: Diversity and Conformity (E-Book #2)

Note:
 Your sex is determined at conception and refers to the productive organs you are born
with and your hormonal makeup
 Your gender is a social role governed by how your culture defines masculinity and
feminity

What is Gender

Gender identity: The cluster of traits that make up our conception of what it is to be masculine
and feminine, or what it means to be a man or woman.

These cluster of traits are gender stereotypes or generalizations; about the way most men and
men are expected to behave – still a high degree of conformity to traditional roles
 However, there are penalties when one deviates from these roles – referred to as social
controls.
 o Social controls help enforce rigid gender behaviour codes

Diversity or Conformity?
 Some people argue that because of some social norms and social controls, gender can
limit our ‘expressions’ and make us conform to roles

Gender Patterns
 Both sex and gender have a powerful influence on the kinds of experiences you will have
in your life
 Women are also the ones who work part-time and earn less than men as well
 Women also experience glass ceiling more often

What are Gender Spheres?

Gender spheres – areas of work where a particular gender appears to dominate the other.
Although there have been changes, it is still apparent that there are issues.

Types of spheres:
 Occupational spheres
o Men dominate admin, tech, the professional fields, and job requiring strength
o Women still find themselves dominating in the ‘caring’ professions such as
nursing, social work, and teaching
 Educational spheres
o Canadian men are far more likely than women to study architecture, engineering
applied sciences
o Women tend to dominate in secretarial, community, social services, nursing and
humanities
 Leisure spheres

Why Gender Spheres Exist

 Nature/nurture argument
 Conservative/progressive ideology

Two Theories About Gender Spheres

The two theories that follow reflect two common divisions in the way people explain why men
and women occupy distinct spheres:

1) Gender spheres either result naturally and provide a useful way to organize our social
world

Structural-Functionalist Theory
  The theory that says that gender spheres evolved naturally because of the fact that women
and men had different biological strength and weaknesses is called structural
functionalism
 As societies became more complex, male and female roles grew out of this fundamental
division of labour: women at home, men out hunting and protecting the family
o These roles are natural and serve to help society function more or less smoothly
o The idea is that societies, like organisms, evolve to survive. Social structures
evolve to serve different purposes in the functioning of society.

2) They result from one group trying to maintain the advantage over the other

Conflict Theory
 This theory sees different groups competition for conflicting interests. Each group is busy
pursuing its self-interest, even if it means disadvantaging or even exploiting another
group

Meritocracy versus Social Connection

 Some people may believe that the individual’s outcome in life is based off merit, so
depending on how one applies themselves, they can achieve what they want accordingly
 Others view society as having invisible systematic barriers through laws, discriminatory
hiring, and psychological barriers

Why it All Matters and What to Do About It?

 Some individuals may be restricted to work in certain jobs because of stereotypes and
gender expectations

Constructing a Fair Society:

 Education – if we teach people that men and women have a very broad range of skills and
talents that often do not conform to traditional male and female stereotypes – we can
create liberation
 Equity laws – for example: gender quotas
 Proportional representation – (and other disadvantaged group) on hiring committees and
educational selection committees

Chapter 5: Work & Family (E-Book #1)

Federal Legislation

 Includes:
o Equal Pay Act – significant to all working women and families
o Title of VII of the CRA – offers protection to women who may experience
disparate treatment because of misperceptions about their roles as women, and to
men as well
o The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)
o The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) – covers all employees, providing
time job, job security and continuation benefits for family
o The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

a) Equal Pay Act and Title VII

 Often used by plaintiffs faced with sex-based pay discrimination in organizations

 Former addresses only compensation, while the latter is useful in counteracting
discrimination in all employment-related matters
 Its strength has been limited by the sex segregation of work

b) Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978

 PDA prohibits employers from discrimination because of pregnancy and related medical
conditions but does not require pregnancy-related benefits or leave
 Two major cases occurred in the male-dominated organizations:
o EEOC v. Berge Ford, Inc. and Auto Care Center, LLC
 Requires employer to treat pregnancy similarly to other medical conditions – women
must be able to work as long as they are unable to

c) The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

 FMLA allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave when ill; on the birth,
adoption or placement of a foster child; or to care for a sick child, parent or spouse
 When on leave, employee’s benefits are continued, and they are guaranteed the same or
substantially similar jobs on returning from the leave

d) Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

 This act allows women who experience sex-based pay discrimination more time to file,
even when pay discrimination remains unknown for an extended period

Earnings

 Overall, never-married, childless women had the highest rates of promotion

 Research has found that male and female managers perceive women as less promotable,
poor performers who fit their jobs – because of having greater work/family conflict than
men
  Part-time work – also contributes to less earnings, which women and mothers do
o Besides offering part-time work as a means of helping working women cope with
family needs, organizations can also address wage, benefit, and promotion
disparities, lessening the negative impact on women who decide to work part-time

Flexible Schedules

 Flexible schedules, or ‘flex time’, increases the ability of employees to meet both of their
work and family needs – although the specifics depend on each employers rules, etc.

Watson and Swanberg have identified three specific, related issues that are relevant to low wage
workers: rigidity, unpredictability and instability

Unpaid and Paid Leaves

FMLA is also differently available to different populations – applicable to employers having

fifty or more employees
 An important as questions about which groups of employees are more likely to have
access to family leave under the FMLA and what are the outcomes if taken

Career Outcomes for Employees who Take Leave of Absence

 Human capital theorists argue that while on leave, people fail to accumulate valuable
“human capital”, such as job knowledge, training, etc. and thus it impacts their career
progress
 In gendered organization cultures managers reward those who set aside personal and
family commitments and are dedicated to their jobs.
o Both theories suggest that people who take family leave will suffer career
penalties as a result of doing so

Module 3: [Ability] From November 1st – November 10th

Chapter 14: Physical and Mental Ability (E-Book #1)

Current beliefs about people with disabilities – are incompetent and unable to work. Ability to
conceal one’s ability is one aspect of stigma.

Goffman included mental and physical disabilities as deviations from the desired norm or typical
individual in a particular context that prevents individuals from full acceptance in society.

Components of stigma that affect individuals include:

a) Onset controllability
b) Disruptiveness
c) Concealability
d) Unattractiveness
e) Peril

Relevant Legislation

ADA – American with disabilities act.

 The express purpose of the ADA is to ‘provide a clear and convincing national mandate
for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities’ (and to) provide
clear, strong, consistent and enforceable standards for addressing difference

Under the ADA, a person with a disability is one who has a physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such impairment, or is
regarded as having such an impairment.

A physical impairment is any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or

anatomical loss affecting at least one of the body’s system. An impairment could also be any
mental or physiological disorder

A person is considered substantially limited when he or she is unable to perform one or more
“major life activities” or is significantly restricted in the manner or length of performance of
major life activities.

Note: The person with a disability becomes protected under the ADA regardless of the
perception of their disability – in other words, constitutes of both real and perceived differences
that affects the persons opportunities to work

Essential and Marginal Functions

How do we know if an applicant with a disability is qualified? As long as the individual can
perform the essential functions of the job – with or without accommodation, then he or she is
qualified.
Marginal functions are those that are secondary to the job: the applicant does them, but even if
they are not performed, the job would still be required.
A qualified applicant or employee must be able to perform the essential, but not marginal,
functions with or without reasonable accommodation.

Reasonable Accommodations

In some cases, a reasonable accommodation must be made so that a person can perform the
essential job functions.

A reasonable accommodation is one that the employer can implement to enable the qualified
person to perform essential job functions without causing undue hardship to the employer.

How to Ask for Medical Issues?

 All medical tests should be conducted after a formal job offer is made
 Should make everything do the medical examination, not one individual
 Asking about the ability to perform the job is a good practice that avoids discrimination
against people perceived to have disabilities

Intellectual Disabilities

People are considered to have an intellectual disability when their IQ is below 70 to 75%; when
they have significant limitations in conceptual, social and practical skills needed for everyday
life; and when the disability oriented before age 18

People with intellectual disabilities’ sometimes experience egregious discrimination and attacks
at work

Perceptions of Performance Inadequacies

The reality is that people with disabilities want to work but can’t find it. These individuals also
clearly face access and treatment discrimination.

The type of disability discriminates against the person with a disability.

In other words, the type of disability was less important than were the perceptions that the
prospective employee would be unable to perform adequately because of the disability. It is
possible that if misperceptions about performance abilities were alleviated, discrimination could
also be reduced.
 Stereotype threat: proposed that this chronically undermines the life outcomes of people
with disabilities

Recommendations for Organizations

For employers:
 a) Changing negative attitudes at work

 Can change by altering the negative attitudes towards people with disabilities – results in
a shift of behaviour patterns (eliminating tension and anxiety)
 Providing facts about people with disabilities improved attitudes as well
 Training for all workers about people with disabilities proved helpful as well

b) Human Resource Needs

 Organizations should ensure that all HR functions are free of barriers

 First requirement is a valid, written job description prior to advertising and interviewing
for a position that makes it clear what the essential and marginal functions are
 Job description should be used for all phases of the human resource process

c) Recruitment

 Numerous orgs can provide recruitment assistance to organizations seeking to employ

workers with disabilities

d) Selection

 The job description and structured interviews should be used when selecting applicants
who are capable of successful job performance, with or without reasonable
accommodations

e) Compensation and Benefits

 Compensation should be given based of what the individual brings to the table, and not
consider their disability

f) Training and Development

g) Performance Evaluation

h) Complaint Mechanisms

 Having an ‘open-door policy’

Chapter 11: Ability (E-Book #2)

The binarism imbued in the term disability leads us to believe that you either are or you are not,
when the reality is, we all live on a continuum of ability, that can fluctuate in form and
permanence, whether by birth or acquired through life events.

Defining Disability

WHO describes disability as a universal human experience – meaning we all can go through it?

Disability Binarism:
 Defining disability as a universal human experience can help us mitigate against
disability binarism that reinforces an us vs. them approach to disabilities.

Visible and Invisible Disabilities:

 Invisible disabilities – those that are non-evident (chronic pain, mental health, sleep
disorders, etc.)
 Visible disabilities – those that are apparent
o Some people may avoid disclosing their invisible disabilities due to stigma

People First Approach and Inclusive Language

Put the person first and avoids terms which equate the person with a disability.
 A person-first approach would avoid unnecessary reference to a person’s disability unless
relevant to the conversation
 A person-first approach does not victimize the individual to be suffering from the
disability either
 “Get to know the person, not the disability.”

Disability Perspectives
The Context of Disability Within Our Social Environment

The Difference Approach and Accommodation

 When disability is constructed as different from the norm – then the approach used is one
that focuses on how to accommodate the difference
 This approach maintains an un-versus-them mentality and differentiates people with
disabilities from people without disabilities
 In the school sense – requires the student to initiate the process of having their unique
needs meet

Moving from Accommodations to Accessibility

Accessibility is multi-faceted – means different things to different people. Creating a society

where all members can participate fully in their community is one of the major goals.

Problem: People with disabilities (especially temporary ones) may be reluctant to identify
themselves

Universal Design:
 Accessibility and inclusion can begin with universal design, using design principles can
help eliminate the need for adaptation or specialized accommodation.
 Universal design considers all members of the community and plans for full participation
of all members.
 There are seven basic principles of universal design:
o Equitable use
o Flexibility in use
o Simple and intuitive use
o Perceptible information
o Tolerance of error
o Low physical effort
o Size and space for approach and use

Universal Design and Postsecondary Education:

 Universal design for learning (UDL) and Universal instructional design (UID) are
educational frameworks used for program development, curriculum design and delivery
for the purpose of creating inclusive and accessible learning opportunities for all learners
 One size does not fit all approach
 Page 246 for info
Module 4: [Visible Minorities, Race, Ethnicity] From November 17th –
November 24th

Chapter 6: Race and Racialization (E-Book #2)

In the past, the concept of race was used to biologically categorize people based on physical
characteristics, including skin color.

The process of social construction of race is referred to today as racialization - people are
referred to as “racialized person”
 Racism is an ideology that one racialized group is inherently superior to others
 Racism operates to marginalize and oppress at a number of levels, including individual,
systemic, and societal

The Concept of Race as a Biological Myth

 Some have used the concept of race to mean a biological division of humans based on
physical attributes such as skin color and other physical traits – and for years, we have
used these differences to draw a colour line that has categorized people into four or five
groups we call races
 Racism is really about how people assign meaning to that appearance – this is a learned
behaviour
 The concept of race is focused on the social construction of difference between groups,
with the effect of marginalizing and oppressing some of these groups within a society.

Racial stereotyping:
 Using the concept of race or ethnicity to attach a generalized concept that all members of
a group have a particular characteristic or ability

What is Racism

 Racism is an ideology that either directly or indirectly asserts that one group is superior
to others, with the power to put this ideology into practice in a way that gives advantages,
privilege, and power to certain groups of people and conversely, can be disadvantage or
limit the opportunities of racialized individuals or racialized groups
 The most commonly accepted concept of racism in Canada is one that refers to the
individual expressions of overt feelings or actions

Fleras and Elliot use an equation to illustrate that racism is pervasive and complex:
 Racism = prejudice + discrimination + power
Forms of Racism

 Representational racism
o Communicates racist ideas through imagery that depicts racial stereotypes
 Ideological racism
o A form of racism rooted in the ideas, beliefs, and worldwide views that reflect,
reinforce, and advance notions of racial superiority or inferiority
 Discursive racism
o A form of racism that is expressed through written and spoken communication
(discourse). It manifests in racial slurs, and hate speech and in words with racial
meaning embedded in them
 Interactional racism
o Interactional racism is a form of racism that is expressed through social
interaction with other people, more specifically how those with privilege interact
with those who are oppressed

How Racism Operates:

 Individual racism
 Institutional racism – Behaviour, policies, or practices that disadvantage racialized
persons; can be intentional or unintentional
 Societal racism – A frame for those concepts, ideas, images and institutions that we use
to interpret and give meaning to racialized thought

Colour-Blindness:
 Racial discourse will often use words like “colour blind” to describe the phenomenon that
a person is oblivious to race and therefore not racist

Racism and the Law

Hate crimes:
 Crimes that are committed against people or property that are motivated by hate or
prejudice against a victim’s racial, ethnic, religious or sexual identity: involve
intimidation, harassment, physical force or threat, etc.
 The Criminal Code of Canada – Section 318/319 makes it a crime to incite hate crimes

Race and Law Enforcement

 Racial profiling: any action undertaken for safety, security, or public protection that relies
on stereotypes to treat persons differently
 Does not strictly apply to law enforcement only
 OHRC defines racial profiling as “any action undertaken for reasons that relies on
stereotypes about race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry rather than on reasonable suspicion, to
single out an individual for greater scrutiny or different treatment.
Chapter 4: Black/African Americans (E-Book #1)

Introduction and Overview

 Start with discussion of African Americans because of the history and organizational
discrimination they continue to face
 Researchers have documented how Blacks and immigrant s of color faced and continue
to face more “substantial barriers to assimilating into and full participation in mainstream
American society relative to all white ethnic groups.”

Research on the Employment Experiences of African Americans

 Increased education in the Black community. However, the returns gained from their
education and their unemployment suggests that Blacks still experience discrimination

Access Discrimination:
 AA frequently experience access discrimination based on stereotypes, prejudice, stated
instructions to discriminate skin tone, or even because their names sound black.
 Black vs. white sounding names – blacks experience more discrimination
 Employers may be exercising statistical discrimination, using the distinctiveness of the
names as proxies for potential productivity and skills of applicants with such names
 Even with Title VII – there’s still issues, but why is this? A possible reason is that new
forms of racisms may help explain these issues.

Treatment Discrimination:
 Results in researchers indicate that being the same race as one’s supervisor produced
significantly higher rating for employees who were similar in race – the similarity effect
tends to advantage whites’ employees and disadvantage black employee

The Glass Ceiling and Walls:

 The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier of prejudice and discrimination that prevents
women, minorities and other non-dominant group members from advancing past a certain
level in organizations
o Occurs at even the first level of management
o AA are almost non-existent at these higher levels
 Glass walls are invisible barriers that confine minorities and women to certain positions
within organizations
o AA are concentrated in communications, community relations and HR positions
rather than marketing, finance and operations which are more likely to lead to
executive jobs
o Glass ceilings and walls can be created and strengthened through overt and clearly
discriminatory practices, as well as practices that seem more innocuous on the
surface
Recommendations

The existence of access discrimination before employment and treatment discrimination after
employment emphasizes the need for org. leaders to make diversity a paramount goal in the post,
as well as pre-employment stages.
 Need to ensure that individuals selected are also treated fairly after employment

Chapter 8: Immigration (Custom e-Reader)

Canada Apologizes

The “Undesirables”
 The Canadian Immigration Act of 1910 stated that the government could exclude
immigrants of any race; in 1919, language was added to the act to provide a rationale for
deeming some immigrants group undesirable
 Another example: Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion, excluding Japanese people, etc.

Another example of xenophobia manifest in Canadian immigration policy was the systematic
exclusion of Jews as immigrants or refugees during the period of 1933-1944.

Immigrating to Canada

 People can come to live in Canada in a variety of different ways on either a temporary or
permanent basis by applying to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Ways of Immigrating to Canada

 Family class – if someone sponsors them (undertaking)

 Economic class – an immigrant can apply independently to immigrate to Canada as a
skilled and/ or experienced worker through the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program
 Resettled refugee and protected person – third way to come to Canada is as a Convention
refugee or a person in need of protection

Settlement and Integration

The need for a comprehensive, collaborative approach to the successful settlement of newcomers
in Canada is something that private, public and voluntary sectors agree on.

 The Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (2000) defines the term settlement
as “a long-term, dynamic, two-way process through which, ideally, immigrants would
achieve full equality and freedom of participation in society and society would gain
access to the full human resource potential of its immigrants’ communities.”
 Settlement process is a continuum whereby newcomers movie from acclimatization, to
adaptation, to integration.
  At the other end of this continuum is integration – a long term process whereby
newcomers become full, equal and active participations in the institutions of their new
host country

Factors Affecting Settlement:

 Factors affecting settlement in a new country can include how receptive and welcoming a
new culture is, a person’s pre-migration experiences, the individual attitude and
personality of the newcomer, and the support services available to help the newcomers
adjust
Module 5: [Indigenous Peoples & Conclusion] From Dec. 1st - Dec. 9th

Chapter 7: Indigenous Peoples

Legislation

Aboriginal Identity:
 Up until about 1850, virtually all of the dealings between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
peoples were connected to land issues – another issue was assimilating indigenous
peoples
 Two legislations were put forth to help protect Indigenous lands – “An Act for the Better
Protection of the Lands and the Aboriginals.” and “An Act for the protection of Indians.”
 These stipulations set the stage for an assimilation process that continues today in the
form of the Indian act of 1876

The Indian Act:

 This act essentially puts together all Aboriginal people into one group of Indians, for ease
of management and bureaucratic containment.
 Not only did this act serve to disregard any distinct cultural differences between
Aboriginal people, but it also established them as wards of the government – effectively
forming a fiduciary relation between them and the government
 Another problem was that these records formed the Indian Register – which helped
agents of the Crown keep track of who was eligible for treaty and interest benefits
 Assigning First Nations people into categories was discriminatory and exclusionary

Residential Schools:
 Were used to “assimilate” young Aboriginal kids – that is, they were more susceptible to
learning the values, language and identity of a new culture
 60s Scoop – Aboriginal kids taken away from Residential schools to random families
 Term to describe this experience: cultural genocide – example; the White paper