OSPE - The Voice - December 2017 - 26
FEATURE
It's Time for a
Culture
Shift:
Why allyship, equity, diversity and
inclusion are the future of STEM
By Dr. Thomas Duever, P.Eng.
Dean, Faculty of Engineering and
Architectural Science
Ryerson University
T
he byline hints at it, but I'll confirm your suspicions. I'm a white, male
engineer. And yes, I'm writing about equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in
STEM. Despite what you may think, it's not ironic. People like me have a major
role to play in the conversations about inclusion in the engineering profession
and higher education - conversations that for the last ten years have sounded
like this: "How can we encourage more women to pursue a career in science,
technology, engineering and math, and how can we keep them in the field?"
Unfortunately, it's the wrong conversation.
Twenty years ago, we were having these same dialogues at Ryerson in our
Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science. It was such a priority for us
to expand female student enrollment that we established an office called Women
in Engineering, or WIE. Within this office, we created programming specifically
for girls and took it out into the community. Through in-class presentations, day
camps and conferences, we encouraged girls to continue their educations in math
and science, and eventually go on to degrees and careers in engineering. We also
engaged influencers (teachers, parents and peers) to improve awareness about
their impact on the decisions of young girls.
Once we got going, however, we realized that the championing of "women
in engineering" was not enough. By focusing on the female student experience
exclusively, we were ignoring issues of race, disability, sexual identity and
class-in other words, issues of privilege. We realized we needed to change our
perspective. We needed to diversify our understanding of diversity.
We are far from alone. A 2011 Forbes survey showed that among companies
with more than $10 billion in annual revenues, 56 percent strongly agreed that
diversity promoted innovation.
Importantly, for the companies whose definition of diversity goes beyond
gender, the innovations - and the resultant financial growth - are often multiplied.
In 2014, McKinsey released a "Diversity Matters" report and confirmed that
"racial and ethnic diversity has a stronger impact on the financial performance
26
The VOICe
December 2017
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of OSPE - The Voice - December 2017
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
OSPE - The Voice - December 2017 - Cover1
OSPE - The Voice - December 2017 - Cover2
OSPE - The Voice - December 2017 - Table of Contents
OSPE - The Voice - December 2017 - 4
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OSPE - The Voice - December 2017 - Cover3
OSPE - The Voice - December 2017 - Cover4
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