Diversity is a fact, inclusion is a worthwhile choic

Diversity is a fact. We know it and we see it every day. People have a variety of unique individual characteristics, such as gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, skill set, where they come from, and their economic and social background. In our lives, the decisions we make and the events that we experience determine our characteristics, such as our education, income, and family situation.

Inclusion, instead, is a choice. We can decide, as part of a company, university, or government, to enact practices and processes to promote people, respecting what makes us different. We can empower everyone to achieve their potential in our organization and to develop a sense of belonging. Inclusion is a choice not only about equity, but about efficiency. Equity, because inclusion means actively working to give everyone the same opportunities to participate and to offer equal access to all. Efficiency, because inclusion generates economic and social benefits. In other words, inclusion is worth it. This aspect is less intuitive, more complicated to put into practice, but also more powerful. Since talent is distributed throughout the population, inclusion means enabling a broader, deeper talent pool, and making a more efficient selection. People who feel included and valued are more efficient, and the perspectives and the decision-making agenda of an organization both expand to encompass issues that get overlooked in contexts where diversity is lacking.

Let’s take gender parity, an idea we’re all familiar with. Women represent 50% of the population, 50% of the talent and skill. What’s more, they’re more educated than men in most developed countries. And yet, no country in the world has achieved gender parity. Worse still, the latest report from the World Economic Forum (2024) tells us it will take 134 years to year gender parity. But the world has closed 68.5% of the global gender gap, 96% of the healthcare gap, 60.5% of the economic opportunity gap, and 22.5% of the political gap. Some nations like Iceland, Finland, and Norway have made more headway than others, while Italy is at the bottom of the list in Europe. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), in fact, if more women joined the workforce in Italy, this country could boost its GDP by as much as 12%.

Inclusion happens by implementing good practices, cultivating inclusive leadership, and eliminating bias and stereotypes. And with good practices, organizations can attract, nurture, and retain talented women. For example, by using gender-inclusive language, setting up diversified selection committees, and establishing more flexible work schedules. This means moving beyond what Claudia Goldin calls “greedy jobs.” According to this Nobel Prize winner in Economics (2023), such jobs discriminate against women, making it impossible for them to have successful careers because they can’t balance work time and personal time. And this means moving beyond “non-promotable tasks” (typically assigned to women).

What’s also needed is transparency in pay and promotion criteria, positive role models, and the elimination of all forms of harassment. Inclusive leadership promotes these good

practices, but that’s not enough without a change in corporate culture. Eradicating stereotypes and prejudices is the most complicated part; stereotypes, even implicit ones, are hard to root out, and they have lasting ramifications.

A well-known example of a good practice is gender quotas, which serve to strike a balance in gender representation, for example on Boards of Directors (BODs) in listed firms. Such initiatives are powerful moves that force change. In fact, case studies in Italy show that following the introduction of gender quotas, as required by Law 120/2011, the average quality of BODs improved, which led to better performance on the financial markets. This happened because the initial balance wasn’t optimal. So basically, this measure is not only an accelerator for achieving gender equity (women have gone from 7% in 2010 to 40% today), but also greater efficiency – a sign that diversity is worth it.

Originally published in Fortune Italia