In North America and many other parts of the world, we’re engaging in substantive conversations about a once untouchable issue: white male privilege. The #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, as well as the systemic inequalities laid bare by the Covid-19 pandemic, have forced people in positions of power to realize that they must step up if there is to be any hope of making organizations more diverse, fair, and inclusive.
Harvard Business Review has shared tips for being a better ally. They view allyship as a strategic mechanism used by individuals to become collaborators, accomplices, and coconspirators who fight injustice and promote equity in the workplace through supportive personal relationships and public acts of sponsorship and advocacy. Allies endeavor to drive systemic improvements to workplace policies, practices, and culture. In a society where customers, employees, and investors increasingly see equity and inclusion as not just a nice-to-have but a must-have, allyship by an organization’s senior leaders has become essential. In this article we’ll describe evidence-based best practices for becoming an ally, drawing on our decades of work studying how women, people of color, and women of color advance in the workplace. (Note that many people are members of two or more marginalized groups. As other scholars have shown, it’s important to acknowledge intersectional identities and how women of color are specifically diminished within these groups.)
While their advice is addressed largely to white men in the United States, they believe it can be used by members of any privileged group who want to create inclusive organizations. Their hope is that the growing attention to systemic racism and sexism will lead to a global movement toward workplace equality.