Are we raising a generation that can be truly blind to race and gender?It seems like a good time to start a blog in this week of momentous change in American politics and therefore in the world situation also. On Tuesday night a friend told me that her young daughter had been a bit fed up at her parents’ insistence on watching the TV coverage of the inauguration. The child was completely amazed when her parents explained that it was the first time an African American had been president and that it had been a particularly historic campaign with both a woman and an African-American battling for the presidential nomination. This child just couldn’t believe that a woman had never been president of the United States (admittedly she has only ever known a woman president in Ireland). This really gives me hope that maybe the next generation can be truly blind to race and gender. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we didn’t need policies and procedures trying to ensure that people are chosen for jobs solely on merit? Do these policies work anyway? I fully support that in some situations it has been necessary to have quota type systems in an effort to correct past injustices. In fact it’s possible that the quota systems in American colleges in the late 1970’s have to some extent enabled Obama’s election. But I have come across many situations where such quotas seem to do more harm than good. Some years ago while doing consultancy work in a large international company I came across a female senior manager who seemed nervous and uncomfortable. She didn’t appear to be on top of her game at all. It transpired that she had been awarded the position, moving up a couple of grades, because the company had a policy of having a certain percentage of female senior managers. This poor woman was in a terrible situation, in a job she couldn’t handle, and with no-one she could confide in. The other senior managers clearly found her to be incompetent so she was constantly striving to prove herself and usually failing which made her even more nervous. A small coterie in her department protected her fiercely while others simply did what they had to but didn’t actively participate. The result was that her department went downhill further adding to her poor reputation. Now I know it could be argued that it’s not the policy that was at fault here but the manner in which it was carried out but can we honestly say that such policies are usually carried out effectively? Add a CommentYour comment will appear once it has been approved. |