DOnald Trump’s attacks on diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives (DEI) since its January inauguration have been intense, blind and increased. A tragic aircraft crash was blamed without foundation on dei. All Dei programs within public organizations have been completed and private entrepreneurs face cancellation if they do not comply either. Web pages that defend religious diversity In the context of the holocaust, the memory has been deleted.
Science and the academic world have been particularly targeted. Universities are threatened With the loss of federal funding if they support DEI. Government reports and government -funded research is selected if they include Prohibited conditions Like “genre”, “pregnant”, “women”, “elderly” or “disabled”. The subsidies funded by the National Institutes of Health canceled If they deal with diversity, equality or inclusion in any form.
In addition, this “war against Woke” (more precisely: “fight against equity”) occurs in the United Kingdom as well as in the United States. Already, British companies and British childcare dogs abandon their diversity readers. Conservative Kemi Badenoch described Diversity initiatives as a “poison”.
These attacks are rooted in voluntary distortions of what Dei is. There are two big lies that must be nailed. The first is that diversity and inclusion initiatives compromise the quality of employees by Selection of incompetent candidates Due to their membership in the minority group. The second is that Dei is a distraction that retains success. Consider each in turn, using the field of science itself as an example.
The idea that DEI implies putting the group’s membership before capacity and leading to the appointment of incompetent candidates is a false declaration of what the initiatives of Dei are. Scientific capacity is not limited to a single sex, ethnicity or religion, nor to validity. Kiss diversity has the simple advantage of Expand the talent swimming pool from which scientists are drawn. Dei’s initiatives aim to ensure that the less competent members of the most privileged groups are not advantageous compared to the more competent members of less privileged groups.
The bias begins at school, especially in the physical Sciences, where girls and boys consider these “boy subjects” As they are adolescents. Even once you have started your university career, the bias affects the grant funding decisions and publication Prices. Women and minorities are faced with additional obstacles to career: for example, both female And ethnic minority Scientists receive less credit for their work than male or white scientists respectively. The bias affects if You feel at home on the scientific workplace. The institutions that attack many obstacles to work for women and ethnic minorities (poorly friendly working hours, harassment tolerance, culturally insensitive socialization practices) women And minority Researchers. Various workplaces attract more diverse staff To apply for jobs – Creation of a positive feedback loop. And we know that scientific research teams and institutions that prioritize diversity operate better.
As for the second myth that Dei is an obstacle to success, diversity actually improves the quality of science. Evidence shows that scientific articles produced by ethnically diversified teams have more impact than those written by homogeneous teams. In the same way, studies Show that various teams consider more alternatives and make better decisions.
Scientists of various backgrounds raise new research questions and priorities – in particular the questions that Assign minorized communities. The lack of women in the upper levels of biomedical science has led to a comparative lack of research on Menstrual and reproductive health problems. The absence of black scientists has led to neglect of the conditions that affect blacks such as sickle cell. And when it comes to the intersection of “race” and sex, things are even worse. It is only in recent years that he has even become known that black and Asian women are much more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than white women.
The medical sciences and the social sciences have long been suffering from a lack of diversity in the design of research, which leads to worst drugs because the results do not apply to all populations. For example, clinical trials have tended to test the treatments mainly on men And whitesleading to less good results for women or minorities. A diversified group of researchers Make the members of minorities more willing to volunteer for the tests and helps to ensure a diversified recruitment of the participants. This improves scientific validity. It also increases the confidence of minorities in research results (Let’s say the development of new vaccines) and therefore the societal impact of research (say, their desire to be vaccinated).
Overall, ensuring diversity, equality and inclusion among scientists are better scientists and better science. Although our examples are taken from science, they are true much more broadly. The DEI initiatives are to guarantee that we always select the best independence of group membership, and not of selection by membership of the group, whatever the best. Science is fundamentally to discover the truth through a rigorous, impartial and transparent investigation and narrow talent or prospects are much more difficult. SO, Dei’s initiatives are necessary to carry out the central mission of science, not a distraction of it.
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Christina Pagel is an operational research teacher within the UCL clinical operational research unit. She is also a member of the independent sage and vice-president and the main EDI of the United Kingdom of the Operational Research Society
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This article is based on A new report by independent sage on the importance of Dei in science. Christina Pagel directed the report, but all the members of the independent sage contributed
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