Tapestry
Only 1,332 days to go...
“Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common. Celebrate it every day.”
~Winston Churchill
My mother graduated from college in 1944. She had a number of friends who had dropped out of college to marry their GI boyfriends going off to war. Some of them, sadly, became war widows and sometimes even sadder, single mothers. This informed my mother a lot. She was adamant that my sister and I graduate from college and work for at least a few years to make sure we knew how to take care of ourselves — if we needed to. She thought it important that women could stand alone and not fall back on marriage as a way to survive.
Like so many women who grew up in the 1950s, I really didn’t think my life would deviate significantly from my mother’s life. I’d graduate from college and work a few years and then settle down in the suburbs with a family. From my vantage point women were mothers, teachers, nurses, baby sitters or secretaries. I might know of a female doctor or lawyer, but they were pretty rare. It was all pretty cut and dry. Women became non-working mothers; had secretarial-type jobs as working mothers, or they were single career women. Those seemed to be the options available.
Nothing really changed my mind until I went to a woman’s college. Since there were no male students, the women ran everything — from class presidents to student council president to editor of the school paper to publisher of the yearbook. There were a lot of female professors as well. I began to realize that as a woman you could have a fulfilling alternative life but, that said, I wasn’t all that interested in having a big “career” per se. I was studying to become an elementary school teacher.
During the summers I got a job at a major Chicago bank. One of my dad’s friends helped me get the job as a receptionist. It was actually a pretty great summer job and I did it well. The second summer I was receptionist in a customer facing and more important department. I was pleased with the promotion — that was until a friend of mine also got a summer job at the same bank. His job was working in the Trust department learning about banking related activities. I wasn’t going to be a banker, so I wasn’t hugely upset, but I was mildly annoyed. It seemed unfair to me that he was getting real banking experience and training, while I was just answering the phone.
It was an interesting time for women. While the Equal Pay Act of 1963 law helped to establish the principle of equal pay for equal work, implementation and enforcement were often lacking. The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was huge. This landmark legislation prohibited discrimination in employment based on sex, offering a legal basis for challenging discriminatory practices. President Johnson's Executive Order 11375 allowed more women to enter and advance in the workforce.
While reforms were made, women continued to be underrepresented in high-paying jobs and leadership roles. Thus began the Women's Liberation Movement. It gained momentum, advocating for greater equality in all aspects of life, including the workplace, family, and politics.
NOW (National Organization for Women) was founded in 1966. I can still remember my senior year, when the Roe v. Wade decision was made. It was brought up by my English professor in class. It’s was a big deal. (Shockingly, it wasn’t until 1974 when the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed, granting women the right to obtain credit cards in their own names without needing a male cosigner. Prior to this, many women faced discrimination when applying for credit, often needing a husband or other male family member to cosign.)
My attitude about careers and work changed dramatically during my senior year. A new professor arrived on campus. She was young, married, beautiful, had her PhD and was amazingly delightful; someone I really admired. I know this sounds ridiculous today, but for really the first time in my life, I realized that you could possibly have both — have a big career and have a family. It really changed how I viewed work.
For years, my dad had voiced his opinion that I should probably be working in the business world — that was my skill set from his perspective. While he didn’t actually say it, he intimated that I didn’t have the patience to hang around children all day long. Obviously, he was right. I taught for several years. Clearly it wasn’t my calling.
Timing is everything.
In 1974 an advocacy group Women Employed filed a complaint against Chicago’s Harris Bank, alleging discriminatory practices against women and minorities. By 1977 the U.S. Department of Labor initiated formal proceedings against the bank, accusing it of promoting white men at higher rates and paying them more than women and minority workers with comparable skills.
All the major companies and banks in Chicago took notice and began scrambling and furiously looking for qualified women and minorities to hire. That was precisely the timeframe, when I was looking for a new job in the Loop.
With the encouragement and support of family friends, I had interviews at two major banks and the consulting arm of an accounting firm. I had great references, but zero experience and little academic training for these types of jobs. None the less, all three organizations offered me a job. By all accounts, in today’s terms, I would have been called a “DEI” hire.
Women and minorities have consistently had to crawl their way into high paying jobs and careers. In 1976, I went to work to begin a wonderful career. Yes, my company gave me a job, and they gambled whether I could do the work or not. For that I will be always be grateful. That said, I learned later, they hired me as the lowest paid person on the professional staff - I was paid less than the secretaries were. Yet within a year, I was doing exactly the same work — and doing it well — that the men were doing, and yet my salary was no where even close to what they were making. So there were many years when my male colleagues were financially getting ahead of me, due to higher starting salaries. I’m not bitter about it… it was just a fact.
Diversity management as a concept appeared and gained momentum in the US in the mid-1980s. Equality and affirmative action professionals employed by US firms along with equality consultants, engaged in establishing the argument that a diverse workforce should be seen as a competitive advantage rather than just as a legal constraint. Their message was: do not promote diversity because it is a legal mandate, but because it is good for business.
I saw it in my own company as well. More women were promoted to partner throughout the 1980-90s and there was diversity in hiring. It was a value that was promoted and respected.
When I joined the firm there were no women partners and only a handful of women managers. I was often the only woman in meetings, but I worked hard and eventually made my way up the proverbial partnership pyramid. That said, when I went to my first partner meeting at some big hotel in Dallas, the women partners needed to go up to their rooms at breaks, because all the female bathrooms were re-labeled as men’s bathrooms. I think we represented something like 7% of the partners in attendance.
How times have changed. I left the firm in 1998 to create a new chapter for myself. I was done being a road warrior. My former company now has a female CEO, which absolutely amazes me! Regardless of all the progress that has been made, as of 2024, women hold only 10.4% of CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies, with 52 women serving as chief executives. This figure has remained unchanged from 2023, indicating a plateau in progress. With African Americans the number is even less. In 2024, 1.6% of Fortune 500 companies are led by Black CEOs, with a total of eight companies. This is a small percentage considering that Black Americans make up 14.4% of the population.
I’ve come to believe, based my own experiences, getting in the door to get hired is the hardest part. I was lucky. (I’ve written about it before: Getting a Head Start). I had a wonderful education. I had parents who encouraged and supported me in getting a college degree and challenging me to do more substantive work. I had family friends who could recommend me and introduce me to the relevant people at good companies. So many people simply don’t have these opportunities to get in the door and then showcase their value. For that reason I have seen the value of programs like Affirmative Action. While they have been labeled discriminatory by some, so are legacy hires and white male preferential hiring discriminatory.
However, when all is said and done, training problems and DEI policies do not radically change peoples’ behaviors. Sadly there’s conflict and resentment. Change comes when people respect and embrace differences… but sometimes it needs a nudge.
There have been discriminatory practices throughout US history. Here’s an ad from the New York Times from 1854:
The resentment that Chinese labor was taking jobs away from Americans and contributing to economic ills produced the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The law prohibited additional Chinese immigrants from entering the United States, and threatened with expulsion those already here.
Here’s an ad from 1908 discriminating against Italians:
Despite graduating tied for first in her class at Columbia Law School in 1959, Ruth Bader Ginsburg couldn’t get a job as a lawyer after graduating, because law firms would simply not hire women lawyers. If haven’t watch this film, I think you can watch on Netflix. It’s pretty amazing how women were treated.
“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the tapestry threads are equal in value no matter their color.” ~Maya Angelou
There have been programs throughout our history to promote preferential treatment of specific groups. Early DEI efforts included preferential hiring to veterans of the US Civil War and their widows in 1865. In 1921 and 1929, executive orders by Presidents Coolidge and Harding established ten-point preference for veterans towards exams and hiring criteria for federal employment. In 1944, the Veterans' Preference Act codified the previous executive orders, clarified criteria, and included special hiring provisions for disabled veterans. Later amendments added veterans from conflicts after World War II, special provisions for the mothers of disabled or deceased veterans, and job-specific training for veterans entering the federal or private workforce.
The legal term "affirmative action" was first used in Executive Order No. 10925 signed by Kennedy in 1961, which included a provision that government contractors "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated [fairly] during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin".
In September 1965, Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 which required government employers to "hire without regard to race, religion and national origin" and "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex or national origin."
“That beginning is freedom; and the barriers to that freedom are tumbling down. Freedom is the right to share, share fully and equally, in American society--to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go to school. It is the right to be treated in every part of our national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all others.
But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.
You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.
Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates.
This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.”
~ Lyndon Johnson
The United States has been and continues to be a diverse nation - a tapestry of races, colors, creeds, religious differences. Frankly, I think that has been our super power. It’s obvious, that Trump and his people want to reverse any progress that has been made in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Trump administration has undertaken extensive measures to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the federal government and beyond. In January 2025, Trump called DEI efforts "illegal and immoral discrimination programs" and "public waste." His administration actions include executive orders, agency directives, and policy shifts aimed at eliminating DEI initiatives from federal operations, contracting, and influence in the private sector.
Starting with Trump’s Executive Orders:
Executive Order 14151 – “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” - this order mandated the immediate shutdown of all federal DEI programs, the dissolution of DEI-related offices, and the termination of associated contracts. It also required the removal of DEI content from federal websites and communications.
Executive Order 14173 – “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” - this order rescinded Executive Order 11246, which had prohibited employment discrimination by federal contractors. It centralized anti-discrimination enforcement within the Department of Labor and revoked protections related to gender identity in federal employment.
Within the various government agencies:
Department of Education: Dissolved its Diversity & Inclusion Council, canceled DEI training contracts, removed DEI resources from its website, and placed DEI-focused employees on administrative leave.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM): Directed agencies to compile lists of DEI personnel and initiate reduction-in-force actions against them. It also instructed the removal of DEI-related content from public-facing platforms.
Department of Justice (DOJ): Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ began investigating private sector DEI programs for potential violations of federal civil rights laws.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS): Eliminated references to diversity, equity, and inclusion from its procedural handbook.
Military and Intelligence Agencies: The Pentagon ceased recognition of observances like Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month. The CIA and FBI dissolved their diversity offices and affinity groups, with some employees reportedly dismissed and security clearances revoked. The DOD went overboard and even erased the facts about the Enola Gay from its websites. I wrote about it in Erasing history.
There has also been an impact on Educational and Cultural Institutions as well.
Military Academies: The U.S. Military Academy at West Point disbanded all minority cadet clubs.
Museums: Displays honoring contributions of women and transgender individuals were removed or covered in institutions like the National Cryptologic Museum and the U.S. Army Women's Museum.
Naval Academy Libraries: Initially removed 381 books related to topics such as anti-racism and gender issues; most were later reinstated after guideline clarifications.
The administration's directives have led to the closure of numerous DEI centers on college campuses, particularly in Republican-led states. We’re seeing corporations shutting their programs; universities and colleges being challenged. It’s almost as if Trump wants to take us back in history and erase all the progress that has been made. 20 Ways the Trump Administration Has Already Harmed Women and Families
The irony of this is Trump has not replaced the process with anything remotely better. His solution is to hire loyalists instead. There has been no meritocracy in this administration — only prejudice. His administration is filled with a Companion of fools. In his mind, they may look the part, but they are not even qualified to do their jobs.
I believe in hiring good people and training them. We are a diverse country with lots of different types of consumers and citizens. Sometimes it takes a nudge. I’m grateful, that when I was looking for a job, that there were laws in place that motivated companies to broaden their hiring practices.
Without these laws, I’d probably still be answering the telephone!
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
"If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity."
~John F. Kennedy
Must Read Article:
Trump’s Demands for Loyalty Will Weaken the U.S. Armed Forces
Hegseth’s campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the Pentagon has led the Defense Department to remove from its websites thousands of images of Black, Latino, and female service members from Arlington National Cemetery’s online memorials as well as references to the Black baseball player Jackie Robinson’s military service and to the Navajo code talkers’ secret operations during World War II. Although some of these images have been restored after a public backlash, vast swaths of less-known military history have been wiped from Defense Department sites. …
This new orientation is dangerous for the U.S. military and for the country it serves. A military that is absorbed in controversial internal security missions will lose public trust and be less prepared to protect the United States in wars against foreign adversaries. Military leaders fearful of losing their jobs or of being marginalized will have few incentives to advise their superiors on the risks or costs of military operations that are at odds with the Trump administration’s priorities…
There may soon be an even darker side to the civilian leadership’s push for the U.S. military to become involved in domestic security missions—one that targets the administration’s political opponents.
Quote of the day:
“A good life is dependent on the empathy and sympathy that people have for each other…. leaders in the government on all levels need to respect and value the people of the nation, including having a sense of empathy for those facing great challenges. These are the people they serve, rather than simply have authority over. American freedom is best fulfilled when those who are weakest are given strength and the opportunity they need to live fulfilling lives.”
~ Rev. Robert L. Montgomery
All people have a right to be treated fairly by the justice system
What I’m reading today…
In his second term in office, Trump is, truly, being Trump. He’s rigorously demanding that the government be “operated” the way he conducted business for decades — that is, solely and exclusively for short-term gain and self-aggrandizement. The result, it is becoming clear, is a regime that leaves chaos in its wake instead of creating anything approaching the foundation for a legacy….To meet his nihilistic standards, Trump has systematically stocked the government with cronies that he demands perform incompetently.
Trump administration sues North Carolina over its voter registration records
The litigation follows similar efforts by the Republican Party and a state GOP candidate to address the registration records for the 2024 election. The lawsuit also referred to President Donald Trump’s broad executive order on elections in March to “guard against illegal voting, unlawful discrimination, and other forms of fraud, error, or suspicion.”
An institution with a personalist culture seeks to protect and honor the dignity of every member and seek his or her flourishing. This approach preserves what is right and good in DEI while guarding against its missteps.
Pentagon orders military to pull books related to DEI and ‘gender ideology’
Military leaders and commanders at the Pentagon were ordered on Friday to go through their libraries and review all books that were related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), in the US military’s latest anti-DEI move.
Women Have Served with Honor for Decades. This Administration Can't Erase That History.
Attempts at erasing the history of military women -- along with people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, for that matter -- are already underway, as a result of an executive order purportedly aimed at eliminating efforts to promote diversity in the military. Erasing history has never made anyone stronger, and will undermine the ability of patriotic Americans to serve.
Trump's Decline Can't Be Hidden At West Point Speech Disaster
Trump gave the commencement address at the non-political West Point commencement address, and the nation got a taste of what his administration seems to be hiding. Trump attacked diversity, and then he attacked former presidents…Trump rambled on for about an hour, but it was an exchange about trophy wives and yachts that left the crowd silent, and provided evidence that Trump is rapidly declining…The Army cadet commencement is non-political, but Trump showed up in his red hat and gave a speech that was nothing but political in the parts that any sense could be made out of. Trump MAGAfies West Point
Verizon ends DEI policies to get FCC's blessing for its $20 billion Frontier deal
Verizon has become the latest big company to end policies around diversity, equity and inclusion, or "DEI," in order to keep the U.S. government happy.
It seems to have worked: on Friday, the Federal Communications Commission approved Verizon's $20 billion deal to buy broadband provider Frontier Communications. The FCC said that the deal will allow Verizon to upgrade the technology providing internet access to 25 states, including rural communities, and to deploy fiber-optic access to at least 1 million homes per year.
The Era of DEI for Conservatives Has Begun
US launches unit to target DEI policies at colleges with civil fraud probes
The United States announced on Monday the formation of a new unit that will crack down on federally-funded universities that have diversity, equity and inclusion policies using a civil anti-fraud law, the Justice Department said in a memo.
The creation of the "Civil Rights Fraud Initiative" marks the latest escalation by the administration of President Donald Trump against colleges and universities that it has claimed are pushing antisemitic, anti-American, Marxist and "radical left" ideologies.
Public schools that refuse to follow Trump's DEI directive are now in the crosshairs
U.S Department of Education officials wrote a memo to state officials on April 3 telling them schools must end programs that give advantages to students from one race or group over another. They first directed schools to comply with their order within 10 days, and then gave them an extension to comply by April 24. If they didn't, they said they risked losing federal dollars for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based on race, color and national origin in federally-funded agencies and programs.
Today’s unprecedented levels of migration make plain that a decrepit, outdated system, built in the wake of World War II, is incapable of contending with today’s humanitarian needs, demographic trends, or labor-market demands. States that focus on border restrictions, mass deportations, or the abrogation of legal protections for asylum seekers will fail to solve the problem. They will simply redirect it while creating a new host of problems that will, in the long term, feed the problem rather than solve it. They will empower criminal networks and black markets while leaving their own economies worse off. The system will continue to decay.
Hollywood Couldn’t Imagine a Star Like This One
…The network and prospective sponsors believed the public would never accept a thick-accented Latino as the spouse of an all-American girl. “I was always the guy that didn’t fit,” Arnaz would later tell Ed Sullivan.
Arnaz, a Cuban immigrant and self-taught showman, had an idea: The couple would undertake an old-fashioned vaudeville tour of major cities around the country. He and Ball would demonstrate the real-life chemistry that he knew would click with Americans if they only had a chance to see the act.
Racism was a fact of daily life even in Arnaz’s adopted hometown, Los Angeles, where some restaurants still refused service to Latinos. The term “D.E.I.” did not yet exist, but Arnaz’s gambit amounted to a bold push for diversity, equity and inclusion in the white-bread monoculture of a dawning mass medium that was sponsor-driven and cautious to a fault….
Behind the scenes, Arnaz rose to become the most prominent Latino entertainment executive of his day and one of the most prominent Latino creative forces in the history of Hollywood. He remains the rarity that proves the necessity — indeed, the essential Americanness — of diversity.
Trump wants to kill digital equity
Since President Donald Trump took office, one of his fondest pastimes has been firing off randomly capitalized social media posts lambasting various laws as—and this is a technical term—too woke to be legal. Among his targets was the Digital Equity Act, which he deemed “RACIST,” “ILLEGAL,” and “totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL.” He wrapped by promising to (attempt to) end the program immediately. “No more woke handouts based on race!” he wrote…. Other than the name of the Digital Equity Act, basically everything about Trump’s post is wrong. …the Digital Equity Act established a trio of grant programs that allow states, Tribes, and other organizations to apply for money they can use to get people online and provide them with the tools necessary to make safe, effective use of the web.
Trump administration ends Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students
The Trump administration is halting Harvard University’s eligibility to enroll international students — the latest move in the growing pressure campaign for the university to align itself with the administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem notified the university on Thursday that their certification for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program is revoked.
What I am listening to…
What I read every day…
My mother felt the sting of being regulated to "just a 1950s housewife." As she did chores around the house she would sing a little ditty to herself -
What happened to all that priceless precious knowledge
That I learned at Vassar College
Now I stand before the sink
And never did I think
I'd spend my days wiping grit
And toothpaste spit.
To hell with all this shit.