Thoughts on Diversity Practices in our Organizations

  • May 24, 2021
  • Tejal Harri-Morar

Coming from South Africa, a country that had openly practiced direct and indirect exclusionary practices previously against its citizens and inhabitants, I offer my real-life observations and thoughts on the current practices in organizations and recommendations that can possibly assist with furthering diversity practices.

There are various diversity practices that have evolved over the years to address inequalities present in organizations. For the purposes of this article, I am unable to focus on every facet of those diversity practices currently prevalent in our global society but will focus on the important ones that I believe are of high importance to the female legal community.  I therefore offer my authentic opinions on practices that I believe can further enhance diversity practices in organisations.

The most discussed topic currently affecting the advancement of diversity practices is pay equity. This prevalent issue highlighted that most female lawyers get paid less compared to their male colleagues, despite being equally competent and producing the same and/or even better financial and qualitative results than their male colleagues.  In my opinion, this issue will only be resolved once provincial or federal legislation makes this issue a priority.  This can be achieved by way of compelling organizations to implement these changes and ensuring real consequences for lack of compliance. Before thinking that this is drastic, consider the following: