Diversity Glossary

Diversity

"Diversity" means variety in terms of social and cultural differences and similarities among people. Societal diversity is reflected in organizations, public administrations, and universities through a diverse workforce comprising individuals with different lifestyles and work patterns.

Diversity Management

"Diversity Management" (DiM) is a personnel development approach aimed at creating a discrimination-free work environment and promoting diversity within the structures of organizations, administrations, and universities. The concept focuses on analyzing structures, personnel processes, and changing organizational culture. In addition to the economic benefits of Diversity Management, it is equally important to recognize individual skills and talents and to perceive diversity as a special potential. In this sense, DiM is a targeted process that occurs at both structural and individual levels.

Empowerment

The term "empowerment" translates to "self-empowerment" and originates from American social work, civil rights, and self-help movements. In social pedagogy and psychosocial work, empowerment is considered a resource-oriented intervention approach. Empowerment is a process in which individuals in disadvantaged positions develop their own strengths and utilize social resources to improve their living conditions. The goal is to increase the (re)gain of self-determination and autonomy in people's lives and to enable them to represent and shape their concerns independently and responsibly.

Gender / Sex

In the 1970s, Ann Oakley proposed the distinction between "sex" as the biological reality of gender characteristics and "gender" as the social and cultural assignment of societal gender roles. This separation of the gender concept makes it possible to understand and negotiate the constructed nature of gender in cultural and historical contexts. In medicine and healthcare, distinguishing between "sex" and "gender" allows for a focus on both biological dimensions and social influences of gender on health.

Gender Mainstreaming

According to the Amsterdam Treaty of May 1, 1999, EU member states are required to make gender equality a cross-cutting issue in politics ("Gender Mainstreaming"). The official explanation from the Council of Europe for gender mainstreaming states: "Gender mainstreaming consists of the (re)organization, improvement, development, and evaluation of decision-making processes, with the aim that actors involved in political design take the perspective of equality between women and men into account in all areas and at all levels."

Gender and Diversity Management

Both gender mainstreaming and diversity management are integrative, proactive, and holistic equality policies. The opportunities and potentials of individuals are recognized, promoted, and expanded beyond discriminatory stereotypes. The aim of both concepts is to address people with their different life realities and not to define their belonging to a specific group based on simplified constructed attributions and characteristics. Gender and diversity management thus promote a very differentiated and reflective perception of mutually conditional categories of inequality. In implementing gender and diversity management, the leadership levels of an organization are primarily held accountable according to the top-down principle to optimize goals, visions, guiding principles, decisions, and thus organizational structures and cultures in terms of equality policies.

Social Inclusion

The term inclusion derives from the Latin word "inclusio," meaning "inclusion." In addition to the goal of a discrimination-free work environment and the personnel development concerning individual strengths, the concept of inclusion represents another step toward a diverse university. Social inclusion requires that all individuals and their uniqueness are recognized and valued, without pursuing the goal of norm adjustment (assimilation). Promoting heterogeneous group compositions and the accompanying equality and participation of all individuals is the goal of social inclusion.