It’s that time of year, between late winter and early spring when people start to notice the first crop of snowdrops or crocus and flavours how we see the coming year. It is much the same when it comes to research reports. Lord Davies of Abersoch’s much awaited report of women in the boardroom and now the Fear and Hope report on immigration all set the tone of gloom when it comes to equality and diversity. The newspapers don’t help much either, dwelling on issues on how women drivers face higher insurance premiums because of a judgement not yet made by the European Court of Justice because of “anti-discrimination rules”.
All this negativity has an effect. It means that any equality and diversity issues are always viewed from a negative standpoint, that they are bad and unfair or at worst discriminatory.
As someone who cares about equality and diversity I find this saddening, but those who profess to care also have to take responsibility. In highlighting the perceived problems it is very easy to present it as a negative….it can even guarantee a headline. Reporting the problem and how manifestly unfair it is easy, but if we want to improve the image we need to concentrate on the solution, how simple and reasonable it is.
