Cleavage Application

“Paramount had organized a party for me. The whole world of cinema was, it was amazing. And then here’s Jayne Mansfield, the last to arrive. And for me it was the time when things became incredible. She came straight to my table. She knew that everyone was watching. She sat and was just … Look at the picture. Where are my eyes looing at? I’m staring ... because I’m afraid they are going to explode from the dress and end up in my plate. In my face you can read the fear. I’m so scared that everything that is forced down in her dress will explode and ends up scattered all over the table.”
Sophia Loren



According to Sevag Kertechian's study carried out in France, female applicants wearing low-cut tops are more successful in being invited to a job interview than women dressed in a less revealing manner. Over three years, Kertechian sent applications of two fictional women whose qualifications and photographs were more or less identical - with the only difference that one was wearing a more revealing outfit and the other a more traditional one. These fictional women applied for jobs in sales and accounting. The results: When wearing a revealing neckline, the applicant was invited to a job interview 19 times more often. Of the 200 sales role applications, the low-cut dress submission received 62 more invitations, of the 200 accountancy applications, there were 68 more interview offers when wearing a low-cut dress. Unfortunatley, the recruiters' gender was not considered as a control variable in this study (via and via and via and via).

"Our results showed interesting trends as low-cut dresses significantly influenced the choice of the recruiters, even for accounting positions. Regardless of the job, whether customer-facing saleswoman or office-based accountant, the candidate with the low cut clothing received more positive answers. The results were quite shocking and negative but not necessarily surprising — they show we need to conduct more research." Kertechian

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Photograph of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield (1957) via

Cabaret

A great many companies have mission statements and diversity programmes. Some have them because they are expected so. Others because they sound good. Or because they protect them when there are allegations of discrimination in court (see). Or because they contribute to a sense of identity companies without a specific company culture were lacking before. In this case, "We have diversity management" only serves as a superficial label without real - without honest - commitment. And it can only last until a new slogan creating identity is found that sounds impressive and underlines the company's image of taking over social responsibility.



According to an article found in the Harvard Business Review, diversity policies do not automatically make companies fairer for women and minorities. The presence of a diversity policy tends to make people discount claims of unfair treatment. This is particularly true for those of so-called dominant groups ("white men") who even may end up believing that they themselves are being treated unfairly because of diversity policies.

"Compared to white men interviewing at the company that did not mention diversity, white men interviewing for the pro-diversity company expected more unfair treatment and discrimination against whites. They also performed more poorly in the job interview, as judged by independent raters. And their cardiovascular responses during the interview revealed that they were more stressed."  (via)

It even gets better ... if you happen to be a female diversity manager as "women leaders who engage in diversity-increasing behaviors in the highest organizational ranks are systematically penalized with lower performance ratings for doing so". Women "may increase their own chances of advancing up the corporate ladder by actually engaging in a very low level of diversity-valuing behavior" (via). In other words, "some" diversity is okay, but please not too much. The fact that, in comparison, male diversity managers are taken more seriously than female ones is ironic as it is exactly companies with this sexist buddy culture that need professional diversity management. Otherwise the whole "ethics and diversity statement blah blah" is only a show, nothing of substance and certainly not sustainable. And then it is time for a diversity manager to say "Bye-bye, mein lieber Herr, auf Wiedersehen, mein Herr. Es war sehr gut, mein Herr. Und vorbei. Du kennst mich wohl, mein Herr. Ach, lebe wohl, mein Herr. Du sollst mich nicht mehr sehen, mein Herr."

More of Liza Minelli's "Mein Herr":



- - - - - - - - -
- photograph via
- Cheryl R. Kaiser, Brenda Major, Ines Jurcevic, Tessa L. Dover, Laura M. Brady, Jenessa R. Shapiro. Presumed fair: Ironic effects of organizational diversity structures.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2013; 104 (3): 504 DOI: 10.1037/a0030838

Blended

A "dark" aspect of intergroup relations is that group membership tends to yield stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination of "the other". The question is whether an individual’s beliefs and practices about diversity (i.e. diversity ideologies) play a role in the positive and negative outcomes of intergroup reactions.



Two of these ideologies are a) colourblindness and b) multiculturalism. Colourblindness refers to the approach of gaining equality by downplaying group distinctions. In US-American society, it can be traced to the movement that opposed segregation and inequality verbalised by Martin Luther King’s famous words that one day people would "not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". Multiculturalism, on the other hand, gains equality by acknowledging and valuing differences, by focusing on positive consequences of group memberships. This approach opposes the idea of the melting pot which has one cultural ideal and hence leads to assimilation.



In general, members of majority groups tend to adopt the colourblind strategy (in order to appear unbiased) more than members of minority groups do. This "avoidance strategy" (for instance not mentioning someone’s ethnicity) is perceived as positive – in the sense of the group member being less biased – when ethnicity is irrelevant but negative – in the sense of the group member being more biased – when ethnicity is relevant.



According to research findings, comparing the effects of the two diversity strategies, colourblindness leads to less stereotyping whereas multiculturalism leads to less prejudice. And, colourblindness of majority workers can lead to less engagement of minority co-workers...



The authors compare research findings and come to the conclusion that "these diversity ideologies affect virtually every aspect of intergroup relations" and that "there is more consensus in the data showing that a multicultural ideology benefits minorities".






Kate T. Parker's photo series "Blended" shows her sister's adoption of the little boy Sam. “We are so in love with this amazing little man who has brought such joy into our lives. There are so many wonderful and interesting things I am documenting, the power of love, the agonizing wait (and then elation) of adoption, the welcoming of another life into our clan, and what it means to be a biracial family.” (information and photographs via).



- Rattan, A. & Ambady, N. (2013). Diversity ideologies and intergroup relations: An examination of colorblindness and multiculturalism. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 12-21

repost (originally posted as "Diversity ideologies: Colourblind or multicultural" on Google Science, 1 April 2014, link)

Making Differences Matter

One aspect of Diversity Management is increasing the diversity of a company's staff. Positive economic outcomes are expected as it does not only mean increasimg the number of different perspectives and approaches but also competitively relevant knowledge. However, that implies that people are able to bring in themselves, to bring in their whole selves to the workplace - an aspect that is at the very core of Diversity Management (Thomas & Ely, 1996).



- Thomas, D. A. & Ely, R. J. (1996) Making Differences Matter. A New Paradigm for Managing Diversity. Harvard Business Review, September-October, 1-12
- photo "Lifeguard's Dream" by Joseph Szabo (1972) via