I Challenge You to Choose Inclusivity

I was honored to be included in the LinkedIn ‘Building An Equitable Workplace’ movement for International Women’s Day.

You can read the full (incredible) thread in inclusivity and equitable workplaces here.

It will take another 100 years to achieve gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum. But if the health and social events of the last year have highlighted anything, it’s that diversity issues go well beyond just gender, and the conversation isn’t over yet. “The pandemic has done one thing. It’s broken down those walls,” Aviva Investors’ Susan Schmidt tells LinkedIn. Shell UK Country Head Sinead Lynch agrees, pointing to the crisis as a “platform for accelerated action to drive equality and a more balanced workplace.”
By Natalie MacDonald, Editor at LinkedIn News

But I want to be sure this conversation continues through the coming weeks, months, and years.

So, if I can ask only one thing of each of you in 2021, it is that you take five minutes to get to know somebody that may not be your color, that may walk with crutches, that may be in a wheelchair, that may be very different than you.

Because if we don’t start thinking about people in different ways, and including people that do not look like us, we will never be able to call ourselves a diverse and inclusive global community.

Today, I challenge you to TAKE 5 to talk to, to think about hiring, and include people that don’t look, walk, talk, or have the same background as you. It’s time that we include everyone, including those with disabilities, in the workplace, in the movies, on TV, on the runway, in our homes, but most importantly in our minds.

Not just today but every day.