Employment Discrimination and Tech Communication

[MSTSACX -at- GSUVM1 -dot- BITNET]

 Someone recently asked whether technical communication leads the way in
 openness in employment.  The statistics suggest mixed results.  On pay,
 we have one of the smallest gaps between the salaries paid to males and
 those paid to females, according to STC salary surveys.  That's
 something to be proud of.

 In terms of integration, we're probably not doing so well.  The demographic
 mix of tech communicators in the U.S. does not match the population.

 Several people have expressed concern that this is an inappropriate place
 to be discussing racism and sexism.  While, admittedly, some of the discussion
 has been fruitless, I'd like to offer a different perspective.

 Diversification of the workforce--that is, bringing women, men, African-
 Americans, Caucasions, Asians, ethnic minorities, gays, straights and the
 like--is considered by human resource specialists to be one of the most
 compelling issues facing the American workforce.  While companies are
 laying off in the tens of thousands today and are expected to do so for the
 next two to three years, workforce experts expect a huge shortage of labor
 in the U.S. workforce in the next few years and the gaps will be filled
 by groups other than the assumed workforce majority: white males.

 Strife and prejudice are an unfortunate byproduct of differences; synergy
 and collaboration are fortunate benefits.  If we can't discuss the former,
 how can we achieve the latter?

 And those of you who don't think this is an important issue, consider these
 points:

 o  How many of you advocate the team approach to product development?  If you
    do, then you have to address differences head on because differences don't
    only exist on demographic levels, they also exist on professional levels.
    Programmers tend to put down technical writers who, in turn, put down their
    editors . . . Wait till the programmer is female, the tech writer is from
    India, the tester is Asian, the marketing person is African American--you've
    just added a dimension of tension to an already known conflict.  But if we
    can openly discuss our feelings and differences, how can we expect to
    get past the conflict and benefit from the synergy?

 o  We now write for diverse audiences, some within our nations, some
    international.  (NOTE--I didn't say within the U.S.  Many of our
    readers live outside the U.S.)  If we don't learn to be sensitive to
    the needs of this diverse audience, our efforts to communicate will
    fail.  For example, how can a Japanese person appreciate an example of
    a social security number when Social Security numbers are uniquely
    American?  By the same token, how can healthcare examples used in
    Western European and Canadian publications be adapted to American
    publications, where we have no national healthcare (only a debate)?

    These were relatively easy examples.  Let's tackle something more
    challenging.  How do we expect women customers to react to a sales
    brochure that has a sexy female draped across a computer?  Many will be
    offended by the overtly sexist image.  How can we expect African American
    and Asian customers to feel when all the people in our photographs are
    Caucasion?

 I find it compelling that so many technical communicators want to avoid a
 discussion so basic and elemental to the communication process:  dealing
 with diverse audiences.  This is the stuff of rhetoric and, as I hope
 most of you know, rhetoric is the basic stuff of technical communication.

 I recognize that racism and sexism aren't pleasant subjects to discuss.  The
 spelling of e-mail (I guess my preference is showing) and exchanging tips on
 FrameMaker demand much less of us.  But if the world had ten spellings of
 e-mail, it probably would be no worse off.  Unresolved conflicts among
 people, however, don't benefit anyone.

 "
 Saul Carliner              Ph.D. Student
 Instructional Technology   Geo. State Univ.
 Note new userid----> mstsacx -at- gsuvm1 -dot- gsu -dot- edu     404/892-3945