Not sure
Attitudes towards ethnicity and race
4. Do you think some races or ethnic groups are born less intelligent than others?
Yes/No
5. Do you think some races or ethnic groups are born harder working than others?
Yes/No
6. Would you say that some cultures are much better than others, or that all cultures are equal?
Some cultures are much better than others
All cultures are equal
7. How much would you mind or not mind if a person from another country who is of a different race or ethnic group was appointed as your boss?
Choose a number between 0 and 10, where 0 is ‘I wouldn’t mind at all’ and 10 is ‘I would mind a lot’
8. How much would you mind or not mind if a person from another country who is of a different race or ethnic group married a close relative of yours?
Choose a number between 0 and 10, where 0 is ‘I wouldn’t mind at all’ and 10 is ‘I would mind a lot’
Attitudes towards gender, family life, and sexuality
9. All in all, family life suffers when the woman has a full-time job?
Disagree
Agree
10. A man’s job is to earn money; a woman’s job is to look after the home and family.
Disagree
Agree
11. A working mother can establish just as warm and secure a relationship with her children as a mother who does not work.
Disagree
Agree
12. One parent can bring up a child as well as two parents together.
Disagree
Agree
13. A same-sex female couple can bring up a child as well as a male-female couple.
Disagree
Agree
General ism questions
14. Do you think your opinion of people might be swayed by social class, even if in subtle ways (style of dress, way of talking)?
Yes/No
15. Would you have concerns if a girlfriend of yours starting dating a Muslim man?
Yes/No
16. Imagine you are a businessperson about to negotiate a deal with a company: would you rather deal with a businessman or a businesswoman in your negotiations? If you have a preference, why?
Businessman/Businesswoman
Reason:
17. Would you want to make friends with someone with different political beliefs to you? If not, why not?
Yes/No
Reason:
18. Can you remember any moments in life that changed your worldview? Were you influenced by someone ‘other’ from outside your social circle?
Yes/No
Details:
19. Imagine you meet a friend’s 3-year-old daughter for the first time: would you compliment her for wearing something pretty? Is there something better to say?
Yes/No
Details:
20. Have you ever made a judgement about someone based on their appearance and been really wrong?
Yes/No
Additional questions can also be found at our website: www.Diversify.org
‘Stereotype of females begins when the doctor says: ‘It’s a girl’.’
Shirley Chrisholm
In 1969, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm delivered a powerfully emotive speech to the House of Representatives demanding ‘Equal Rights for Women’. She remarked:
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: ‘It’s a girl.’ At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.*
Heeding her own advice, three years later Chisholm would become the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and the first African-American to run as a major party’s nomination for President of the United States.
It was 1972 and, alas, America was not yet ready for a woman, let alone a black woman as bold as she; her presidential bid was ridiculed, laughed at, and met with cynicism and disdain by most of the elite. But even so, Chisholm still managed to secure 151 delegates in the Democratic primaries. As a prominent member of both the civil rights and women’s movements, her courage and belief in the possibility of change helped pave the way for a Barack Obama and a Hillary Rodham Clinton. She most certainly lived up to her gutsy tagline of ‘Unbought and Unbossed’ – she famously espoused that ‘if they don’t give you a seat at the table then bring a folding chair’ – but Chisholm was the exception and, unfortunately, her remarks are still as relevant today as they were in 1969. Because it’s true that when a child is born and the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl’, that tiny, innocent miracle already has the odds stacked against her and will have to play on a field that most certainly isn’t level.
Women are the largest oppressed group in the world, and the degrees of subjugation vary from country to country, with women in the West faring much better than their counterparts in developing parts of the world. In their 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, argue that: ‘In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.’ A struggle it may be, but it’s one that will be 100 per cent worth it, given the rewards that are to be won. So, in this section, I will challenge the idea of women as ‘other’, and argue that the results – personal, cultural, and economic – of diversifying gender will be spectacularly beneficial, for women, for men, and for society as a whole.
‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.’
Marianne Williamson
On 29 May 1851, a heckler disrupted the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, leaving the room stunned with a speech that would go down in history as one of the most iconic feminist speeches of all time.
The heckler was Sojourner Truth. Born a slave 54 years earlier, she was the complete antithesis of the aristocratic women who