The making and selling of an illusion: an examination of racial and gender diversity in post-civil rights U.S. corporations

“Diversity” has become one of the most commonly used words by U.S. corporations.Indeed, many companies claim that they have spent millions, sometimes billions ofdollars to create an egalitarian workplace for all workers. Given the amount of moneyspent and the increased amount of research that corporations have done on the issue ofdiversity, we should expect some progress in terms of equality or equal rights forminority and female workers. However, while there has been a substantial increase in therise of corporate philosophy espousing diversity, there is also overwhelming data thatsuggests minorities and women are still unable to obtain opportunities or to achievesuccess at the same rates as their white male counterparts. How can we explain theapparent contradictions? Furthermore, why are many companies that have historicallybarred minorities and women from their workplace now publicizing their support forracial and gender integration? I suggest that corporations are using the word “diversity”as an ideological tool designed to promote themselves at the forefront of equality in theU.S. Using in-depth interviews conducted with 40 middle and senior-level managers andupper-level executive officers from Fortune 1000 companies, I find that while the word diversity is frequently uttered by managers (and strategically used in various mediaoutlets), most managers are unable to clearly define diversity. Moreover, while managersclaim their companies are interested in diversity, there is no convincing evidence thatwould suggest this is true. Thus, my findings suggest that many corporations use“diversity” as a shield to hide the fact that nothing has really changed in the structure ofU.S corporations. That is, U.S. corporations have been, and continue to be, exclusiveclubhouses for upper class white males.