ABSTRACT
In the UK the pursuit of gender equality has been one of the central features of equal opportunities policies for the past 25 years or so, underpinned by the Sex Discrimination Act (1975). However, just as in many other countries (see Humphries and Grice (1995) on New Zealand; de los Reyes (2000) on Sweden; Cox (1994) on the US; Blommaert and Verschueren (1998) on various European countries), in the UK the traditional equal opportunities agenda has now given way to the concept and language of diversity in much organizational policy and practice. Indeed, diversity has become a popular concept in the UK management and practitioner literature, where organizations are urged to celebrate diversity in order to achieve success (e.g. Kandola and Fullerton 1994; EOR 2001). Because different countries have their own specific history of women’s and civil rights and different legal frameworks that shape public and employer policy on gender equality, the discussion contained in this chapter focuses on the UK experience of the shift from equal opportunities to diversity management. However, the discussion has considerable salience beyond the UK, particularly as the newer discourse of diversity is potentially a global one (Humphries and Grice 1995).
