{"id":1160,"date":"2017-03-09T09:18:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T09:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=1160"},"modified":"2019-05-03T09:29:05","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T09:29:05","slug":"diversity-digital-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/03\/09\/diversity-digital-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity in digital: why I think it matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leah Lockhart<\/a>, Digital Democratic Engagement Officer at the Democratic Society<\/a>, gives us her take on\u00a0why\u00a0diversity in\u00a0Scotland’s digital sector is so important.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As in most industries, there\u2019s a lack of diversity in digital, and the majority of visible representatives in the field are middle-aged, white men.<\/p>\n

From where\u00a0I’m standing, it feels like, across\u00a0globe, homogenous dudes organise groups of other homogenous dudes for conferences, workshops, lectures, product development, policy creation and the rest.<\/p>\n

We need to take charge<\/h2>\n

That said, there are organisations and communities like Girl Geek Scotland,<\/a> doing\u00a0great work\u00a0focused on\u00a0changing this.\u00a0But those of us\u00a0who want\u00a0to increase diversity in our professional networks,\u00a0and want things to move even faster, have decided to\u00a0take action\u00a0ourselves.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m part of a growing network of people who would like to make it easier for businesses and organisations to have a wider variety of people in their networks. And to help those who are less visible to represent different points of view in professional environments.<\/p>\n

We are men and women from a variety of backgrounds and with lots of different experiences to share. We are designers, academics, technologists, teachers, and everything in between that can\u2019t be described using just one job title.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no website or email address I can give you right now, because we\u00a0haven’t formalised our network yet.\u00a0But there\u2019s something very important brewing. It\u2019s urgent, it\u2019s grassroots and it\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

At the digital events I’ve been to, I’ve often been the only female on panels, speaker line-ups and leading workshops. On one hand, it can make me feel like the token. But I have to remember that what I have to say is valuable so, token or not, I\u2019ll own it anyway.<\/p>\n

A call for diversity isn\u2019t some nutty\u00a04th wave feminism<\/a> stunt, it\u2019s a slight dig at conference organisers who mainly feature homogenous panels<\/a>, it\u2019s not PC gone mad and it\u2019s not lowering the bar. It\u2019s an opportunity to open up discussion and\u00a0build strong links between people with different backgrounds.<\/p>\n

So why is this important?<\/p>\n

Because science<\/h2>\n

Research here, there and everywhere demonstrates the benefit of working and thinking in groups with mixed backgrounds.<\/p>\n

An article<\/a> from Scientific American, (the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the US), states: “Decades of research by organizational scientists, psychologists, economists and demographers show that socially diverse groups (that is, those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation) are more innovative than homogenous groups.<\/p>\n

This is not simply because people with different backgrounds bring new information. Simply interacting with individuals who are different forces group members to prepare better, to anticipate alternative viewpoints and to expect that reaching consensus will take effort.”<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s right<\/h2>\n

I hope I don\u2019t surprise anyone too much, but the general population isn\u2019t largely made up of cisgender<\/a> white men. A lack of wider representation in industries and institutions is alienating for a lot of people (including me) and, frankly, it\u2019s getting boring. It means we\u2019re not really learning anymore.<\/p>\n

Because it challenges status quo<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve had people tell me that the over-representation of men in organisations and institutions reflects the current state of management and leadership in most industries and sectors, and that\u2019s that.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately that may well be the case, but who set the rule that the guy with the loftiest title is the most informed or most capable?<\/p>\n

In his book\u00a0The Wisdom of Crowds<\/a>, which argues that groups can make better decisions than select handfuls of experts, New York Times business columnist James Surowiecki says, “Heretical or not, it\u2019s the truth: the value of expertise is, in many contexts, overrated\u2026 the fundamental truth about expertise is that it is spectacularly narrow. However well informed and sophisticated an expert is, his advice and predictions should be pooled with those of others to get the most out of him.”<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be going along to the Scottish Government\u2019s Diversity in Digital Unconference on Wednesday 22 March, and I hope to meet you there. Ask me more about the network of diverse professionals I\u2019m helping to create in Scotland, and find out how you can join us, help us grow and use the resources we create.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation on Twitter: scotdigidiversity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leah Lockhart, Digital Democratic Engagement Officer at the Democratic Society, gives us her take on\u00a0why\u00a0diversity in\u00a0Scotland’s digital sector is so important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[35,40,34],"class_list":["post-1160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-public-services","category-digital-scotland","tag-digital-diversity","tag-digital-sector","tag-diversity"],"yoast_head":"\nDiversity in digital: why I think it matters - Digital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/03\/09\/diversity-digital-matters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Diversity in digital: why I think it matters - 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