The limits and contexts of LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts at work

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to deploy and develop critical diversity studies to analyse how LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion policy manifests in the workplace, and how these endeavours are received by workers. Critical diversity studies examines changing discourses on social difference - for instance, in relation to the discourses of diversity and inclusion- and how these notions are encountered critically by scholars, workers, and inter alia, policy makers. I argue the field has neglected to account for the limits to LGBTQ+ workplace diversity and inclusion as they relate to Australia’s neoliberal, postcolonising and LGBTQ+ political contexts. To address this gap in critical diversity studies literature, I ask what is valuable about examining the limits to LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion work in the Australian context? I interrogate how the limits of diversity and inclusion work manifest and also engage in critique of the aspiration of LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion itself. I approach my study through a mixed methodological approach, drawing on theoretical analysis, policy analysis, semi- structured interviews and participant observation. I study policy guides in addition to the sites of a not-for-profit and a semi-corporate educational institution. My research provides insight to policy makers, LGBTQ+ community members, academics and diversity practitioners about the shortcomings of LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion work, and how it is necessary to challenge broader structural inequities in the Australian setting I examine. My PhD develops theoretical understandings of LGBTQ+ workplace diversity and inclusion, through bringing fields like postcolonialism into more sustained conversation with critical diversity studies, and by informing empirical understandings of LGBTQ+ workplace diversity and inclusion.