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Glossary

Before you start diving in, here are some key terms and phrases you may come across throughout this toolkit. You can also come back to this section at any point.

Glossary of terms

Equality

Equality means making sure everyone has equal opportunity. It is making sure people are not treated differently or discriminated against because of their protected characteristics (race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age, marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity).

What is the benefit of equality? Equality creates a positive working environment, retains colleagues and helps to nurture good ideas and problem resolving.

Equity

Equity is not the same as equality. Equality is ensuring everyone has the same opportunities, whereas equity is about giving people what they need, to make things fair and ensure that everyone has the same opportunities. Equity acknowledges that not everyone will start from the same place and aims to ensure equality of outcomes.

Diversity

Diversity is recognising, and valuing differences in people. A diverse environment, combined with inclusive leadership, is one with a wide range of backgrounds and mindsets, which helps create an empowered culture of creativity and innovation.

What are the benefits of diversity? Diversity makes us better problem solvers and helps develop new viewpoints that lead to better results.

Inclusion

Inclusion is a sense of belonging, where individuals feel valued and able to thrive in their environment, no matter their background, identity or circumstance, to bring out the best in everyone regardless of who they are and where they are from.

What are the benefits of inclusion? Inclusion makes the workplace culture both supportive and safe.

Protected characteristics

The nine protected characteristics are a set of characteristics listed under the Equality Act 2010 in the UK. It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of a protected characteristic. We discuss this further in the sections below.

Microaggressions

Microaggressions are the everyday slights, indignities, put downs and insults that people of colour, women, people from LGBTQ+ communities or those who are marginalized, experience in their day-to-day interactions with people. We discuss this further in the sections below.

Unconscious bias

Unconscious bias is when we make judgments or decisions on the basis of our prior experiences, our own personal deep-seated thought patterns, assumptions or interpretations, and we are not aware that we are doing it. It can also be called implicit bias. We discuss this further in the sections below.

Systematic bias

Systematic bias, also called institutional bias, is the tendency of a process to support particular outcomes.

Psychological Safety

Psychological safety at work is an atmosphere where people are free to speak up with a concern or question without fear of reprisal (Amy Edmondson). People feel safe to share information with their colleagues when they have psychological safety.

Stereotypes

A stereotype is a widely held but fixed view of a particular type of person.

Oppression

Oppression is the social act of placing severe restrictions on an individual group or institution through unjust exercise of power or authority. Some examples of systems of oppression include sexism, ableism, classism and ageism.

Researcher

We define a researcher as someone who does research. This can be a student or academic colleague but could equally be a Professional Services colleague working in roles enabling research.

Leader

We use the phrase ‘leader in research’ throughout this toolkit where we refer to people who lead in a variety of formal roles, for example as principal investigator on a research project, or as a lead of research service. However, we recognise that anyone can lead at any stage of their career, by recognising something needs to change and doing something about it. We encourage colleagues and students to change practices and role model EDI behaviours at any stage, and lead from where you are.

Embedding

When we refer to ‘embedding EDI’, this means that equality, diversity and inclusion would be fixed as a part of our behaviour and practices on a daily basis. For example, when making decisions we would naturally think about the EDI implications due to our awareness and understanding of its fundamentals.

Protected Characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 defines discrimination in terms of nine “protected characteristics”. These are:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender
  • Gender affirmation
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race
  • Religion or belief
  • Sexual orientation

It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of any of these characteristics. You can find out more about protected characteristics and the discrimination around these in the Protected Characteristics section. Although social inclusion is not a protected characteristic, it has been included in the toolkit, as we believe it is important to discuss, along with intersectionality. There is also a page devoted to caring responsibilities within the pregnancy and maternity section.

You can watch some videos to find out more about the Equality Act 2010 and protected characteristics.

Microaggressions

What are microaggressions? 

Microaggressions are the everyday slights, indignities, put downs and insults that people of colour, women, people from LGBTQIA+ communities or those who are marginalized, experience in their day-to-day interactions with people. Microaggressions have often been compared to “death by a thousand cuts”, as they are so frequent and hurtful, and have such a lasting impact.

It's reported that around 4 in 10 people experience microaggressions in the workplace that relate to their identity. This figure rises for individuals from the LGBTQ+ community.

Videos

We have compiled some videos to explore that will help you understand what a microaggression is, as well as some examples from a UK University context:

Articles

Examples of microaggressions

“Your English is so good!” This statement suggests that the person in question would be less articulate based on an assumption you have made about them and for example, their race or origin.

“Your name is so hard to pronounce. Is there a nickname I can call you instead?” This suggests that the person in question does not fit in culturally or linguistically, and that their identity is not worthy of respecting or taking the time to learn. Instead, ask them how to pronounce it correctly.

“When I see you, I don’t see colour.” To be ‘colour-blind’ to race, you erase the experiences of people of colour. A White person may think that this is a positive thing to say, but by not registering skin colour at all, you are not acknowledging the very real ways racism exists and continues to exist.

“Do you even know what Twitter is?” A colleague saying this to an older colleague is stereotyping the older colleague, and making assumptions based on their age – this is inappropriate.

Types of microaggressions

There are different types of microaggressions that you should be aware of. These are:

  • Microassaults: This is when a person intentionally behaves in a discriminatory way, while not intending to be offensive. For example, telling a homophobic joke and then saying, “I was just joking”.
  • Microinsults: A microinsult is a comment or action that is unintentionally discriminatory. For example, telling a Mexican girl that she doesn’t look Mexican.
  • Microinvalidations: This is when a person’s comment invalidates or undermines the experience of a certain group of people. An example would be a White person telling a Black person “White people get killed by the police too,” when discussing police brutality.
Implicit and unconscious bias

What is implicit and unconscious bias?

Implicit or unconscious bias happens by our brains making incredibly quick judgments and assessments of people and situations without us realising. Our biases are influenced by our background, cultural environment and personal experiences. We may not even be aware of these views and opinions, or be aware of their full impact and implications. Unconscious bias can heavily influence processes such as recruitment – from selection processes to salaries.

By understanding the impacts of unconscious bias you can try to combat this. Check out ways that you can consciously combat unconscious bias online. You can also check out the Harvard implicit bias. You can be an active bystander to help combat bias – whether this is acknowledging something offensive, supporting someone affected by a situation, delegating where appropriate.

You can check out a Catalogue of Bias to find out about other types of bias too.

Videos

We have compiled some videos to explore that will help you understand unconscious bias and implicit bias mean.

Psychological safety at work

How to create a psychologically safe workplace

Psychological safety at work is an atmosphere where people are free to speak up with a concern or question without fear of reprisal (Amy Edmondson). It is essential to creating a good working environment, which is also important for innovation and research. UKRI CEO, Ottoline Leyser, notes that “where everybody in the system…feels safe to voice their ideas, disagree with one another, seek and provide honest feedback, collaborate, take risks and experiment, admit errors and ask for help”. High performing and successful teams depend on the leader’s behaviour and the environments they create.

To understand more about psychological safety and how to implement this in practice, you can read the articles and books, and watch the video recommendations listed below.

Articles

Books

Videos

Discrimination, Harassment and Victimisation

Discrimination

There are four main types of discrimination:

  1. Direct Discrimination
  2. Indirect Discrimination
  3. Harassment
  4. Victimisation

Each type of discrimination is explained below, along with videos for further information at the bottom of this page.

Direct discrimination happens when you are treated less favourably because of a protected characteristic. It can never be justified, except on the grounds of age. You can be protected from discrimination on the grounds of perception – this is where the person does not actually have the protected characteristic but is perceived to have it and is treated less favourably as a result. You can also be protected from discrimination on the grounds of association of someone with that characteristic.

Indirect discrimination happens when an employer might apply the same policies/criterion to everyone but because of your protected characteristic, one group is more disadvantaged by that policy. Indirect discrimination can be justified if there is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

Harassment occurs when individuals (or an individual) engage in unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic and the conduct has the purpose of creating an intimidating, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Not all protected characteristics are directly covered by the harassment provisions. The following protected characteristics are covered: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

The Equality Act also provides protection from victimisation. This means that you cannot be treated unfairly if you are taking action under the Equality Act (e.g. making a claim of discrimination) or if you are supporting someone else who is doing so.

You can watch some videos to find out more about harassment and victimisation, as well as the difference between direct and indirect discrimination. 

For Newcastle researchers

Learning Management System (LMS) training

You can access training on the LMS which covers Direct and Indirection Discrimination and Harassment, Victimisation and Bullying (ncl login required).

You may also wish to check out:

Policy

The Bullying and Harassment policy explains the behaviours that may be identified as bullying or harassment, and the actions and consequences of such behaviours happening in the workplace (ncl login required). 

Protected Characteristics
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