by Ray Hayes
When it comes to diversity, Baby Boomers and Millennials have different views of the term. While Baby Boomers believe diversity focuses on ethnic / racial context, Millennials widen that definition and include other aspects such as sexual orientation, gender, and even thought. In addition, Millennials consider diversity when making employment decisions a lot more than previous generations. According to the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) recent study, “…47 percent of millennials consider diversity and inclusion of a workplace in their job search, compared to just 37 percent of Baby Boomers and 33 percent of Gen X’ers.”
Diversity is indeed the future.
When taking a closer look at the future, Millennials have already identified 3 industries where diversity could use improvement moving forward. These industries include technology, healthcare/medicine, and higher education.
In my opinion, these listed industries are in need of diversity increases. Technology is easily the most well known (in terms of lack of diversity), but healthcare and in particular high education are struggling as well.
While working in the field of Higher Education, I can attest to the lack of minority representation at various school functions and published articles. Alarming as it may be, some educational institutions seemed to not care much about the need to become more inclusion and reach out to growing American communities.
Deborah Bial, founder of The Posse Foundation, said it best. “We must believe that admitting and graduating diverse student bodies from our best colleges and universities is critically important for the nation as a whole. We must act on this belief. Otherwise we perpetuate a kind of segregation that breeds severe inequities. And these inequities directly lead to the divisions and discontent we see in our country right now.”
