It’s been five years since Google released its first diversity report, sparking other large tech companies to do the same. Since then, many companies – not only in the tech sector – have made diversity recruiting a clear priority, acknowledging the lack of women and people of color in technical and leadership roles and pledging to increase the diversity of their teams.
However, as recruiters and hiring managers in all industries continue to search for talented candidates from underrepresented groups, it’s critical to consider intersectionality in your hiring process.
What is intersectionality?
Diversity means having representation of all different groups of people. That representation goes beyond race and gender as well – a diverse group of people would include individuals of different ages, genders, race, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, class, and more.
What’s essential to the diversity discussion is the concept of intersectionality – how different dimensions of systemic disadvantage impact an individual as a result of interconnected social categorization. The term “Intersectionality” was first coined by American scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, giving a name to the way multiple oppressions can be experienced by an individual and how neglecting this crossover further marginalizes those individuals.
What are examples of intersectionality?
Every person has a multifaceted identity. For example, a white man that comes from a wealthy background will have a different set of experiences than a white man from a working class background. Black women, as a racial minority and as women, face discrimination and challenges different from what white women experience in the workplace, just as first generation college students and those in the LGBTQ community face their own set of hurdles. The concept of intersectionality is understanding that a combination of identities can affect access to opportunity and result in discrimination in and out of the workplace.
Why is intersectionality important to keep in mind during the hiring process?
When it comes to the “why” of diversity recruiting, many articles point to the clear, proven benefits of diversity. A widely-cited report by McKinsey & Company found that diverse teams perform better, and companies lagging in representation are falling short when it comes to profitability. Another report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics identified a correlation between women in corporate leadership positions and the improved performance of a firm.
It’s not the number of women or people of color on a team that automatically makes a company more successful – it’s having different experiences, different approaches to problem-solving, and different perspectives that help companies deliver better solutions and better products. It’s seeking out the top talent for the job while understanding that talent could come from non-traditional backgrounds. It’s having an inclusive environment that allows individuals from all backgrounds to feel comfortable at work, allowing them to thrive and produce their best work. Intersectionality recognizes the complexity of identity and allows for unique experiences to be considered, which in turn makes your team more capable
Intersectionality is essential in the hiring process because without it, you might believe you are building a more diverse team but still end up with a fairly homogeneous team. Without intersectionality, it can be difficult to understand the multiple layers of discrimination that could keep people with certain identities from accessing opportunities. For example, while women as a whole are underrepresented in the tech industry, the representation of women of color is much worse. If your engineering team is over 50 percent women but has few Black or Hispanic women, your team is still lacking representation. Recruiters have the opportunity to bridge this gap. That’s why when developing a recruitment strategy, it’s important to not only ask, “How can we get more women into tech?” but “How can we bring more women from all backgrounds into tech, especially those who are excluded at higher rates?”
How can I incorporate the concept of intersectionality into my company’s hiring process?
There are multiple direct and indirect ways to apply intersectionality to your diversity recruiting strategy.
You can expand your target schools beyond Ivy League universities, as a focus on those schools will likely limit your applicant pool to those from wealthier backgrounds (this New York Times article shows the high concentration of wealthy students at Ivy Leagues.) You can recruit candidates from state colleges, community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Women’s Colleges. You can seek specialized job fairs or email list servers for LGBTQ candidates, first-generation college students, or Veterans. Intentionally expanding access to your opportunities to candidates from different backgrounds expands the experiences, knowledge and perspective your team could benefit from.
To directly measure diversity, some applicant tracking systems can help you measure the demographics of candidates in your pipeline; executive search firm Korn Ferry predicts that this diversity tracking technology will only continue to increase. RippleMatch’s technology has this capability, allowing clients to measure the number of candidates who identify with multiple backgrounds and tracking candidates that identify as women, underrepresented minorities, LGBTQ, first generation college students, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with Veteran status.
Finally, continuing to educate yourself on the importance of intersectionality can help you work toward building more diverse and inclusive teams. Ellen K. Pao, an investor and co-founder of non-profit organization Project Include, provides an in-depth explanation of intersectionality and its importance in this Medium post, which looks at the significant disadvantages women of color face in the tech industry face compared to white women. This article by diversity and inclusion advocate Jennifer Kim does a great job of explaining intersectionality. You can also read Kimberlé Crenshaw’s original essay that coined the term “intersectionality” in 1989.
To build a truly diverse team, talent acquisition managers and recruiters need to keep intersectionality top of mind during their hiring process. Considering the way different forms of oppression may restrict access to certain candidates will allow you to craft an informed approach to diversity recruiting, breaking the barriers that potentially stand in the way of you and your best hire. Additionally, considering intersectionality can help you craft a more inclusive and welcoming environment for every new hire, helping you attract and retain top candidates from all backgrounds.
Want to learn more about what underrepresented candidates want at work? Download our full report on ‘Diversity in the Workplace’ below.
