How can sexual and racial discrimination be reduced in the work place?
There are many strategies that can be used to help reduce discrimination in the work place. Perhaps most important is for clear norms about what is acceptable behavior to be established, for these norms to be meaningfully endorsed by people in power, and for consequences for breaking the norms to be clear. Many problems arise over the definition of discrimination: one person s racist comment is another s idea of a joke. Also, a non-discrimination policy on paper has little meaning if it is not routinely and visibly enforced. It is also important that groups within the workplace not be segregated along race or gender lines. If all the janitors are minorities and office personnel are white, stereotyped positions are only reinforced.
