Marissa Mayer had her twin girls last week and though everyone, including myself, wishes her and her family the absolute best, the whispering has begun. Will she return to work and by some miracle save Yahoo or will she use the birth of her children to part ways with the struggling company? It’s a question that I think most leading women in business will face regularly – will they put their personal lives before their professional ones?

In either case, whatever she decides to to, the seemingly never ending debate about the role of gender diversity continues. According to the World Economic Forum, the gender pay gap may take 118 years to close and that’s if everyone stays on track. And as the new years comes along, people in all industries are starting to look at the things that they’d like to change. And diversity – all types of diversity – is one topics that most of them take into consideration.

Hollywood and Women

From executives to filmmakers to actresses, women in Hollywood have started to speak out against the incredibly large divide between what men are able to achieve and women struggle for. Leslye Headland, a writer and director summed it up well when she said:

“Without the benefit of Google, ask anybody to name more than 5 female filmmakers that have made more than 3 films. It’s shockingly hard” – New York Times

It is true. And the thing is, this problem in Hollywood isn’t only with directors and producers. Even well known actresses such as Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were paid less than their male counterparts in large movies like American Hustle. Of course with Hollywood, it doesn’t end at gender. Ethnic minorities made up only 17% of lead roles in films; needless to say, that’s far too low (reference: NPR.org). Talking about diversity in Hollywood is relatively a new topic and we’ll have to wait and see what they do to get there.

Healthcare and Minorities

The struggle for diversity in the healthcare industry spans across much more than just men and women. The industry is looking at improving diversity for both ethnic and gender based minorities. As with other industries, steps are being taken. For example, Mount Wachusett Community College in the US recently got a $2.5 million grant that they’re using to increase the number of minorities. Generally, the US is focusing a great deal on increasing Spanish speaking professionals in the industry because of the overall population makeup of the country. The rest of the world is trying to increase the number of men in the nursing sector (an interesting reverse as compared to most gender diversity debates).

I know that many would argue that frontier markets and developing nations in general have more things to worry about when it comes to healthcare such as quality and accessibility. Though I understand that angle, I also feel that if diversity is thought of in the beginning, it never has a chance to become a major issue.

Tech and Diversity

It’s not new news that the tech industry has issues when it comes to Gender Diversity. The good news is that through out the world, the realization has struck and that is the first step. The second step it seems is that technology companies are finally starting to get them young – bring girls into the industry right from school so that they inculcate a love for it right from the start. MasterCard is a major player in this initiative, targeting all-girl schools in India for their Girls4Tech program. But here’s an interesting twist – it’s not only Gender which is sparking the diversity challenge in Tech. In a post on Medium, Steven Levy talks about how tech startups just don’t have any “old” people in them. In fact, Payscale says that the average of employees at the top technology firms is only 29.

It seems like there’s a very specific profile of the kind of person who would be successful here and that technology firms have a very long way to go before they find diversity in their employees.

There you have it. It’s not only about gender diversity – it’s about race, ethnicity, age, religion – everything that makes people so wonderfully different. And it’s not just about “traditional business” – it’s everywhere. Entertainment. Business. Education. Where can your organization use more diversity? If you have any thoughts on the topic, share them with me on Twitter.

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