Equity and Communication
Bedford Series for Technical and Professional CommunicationFirst Edition ©2025
Equity and Communication synthesizes research on equitable communication to recommend concrete, specific actions that can move us to more equitable workplaces. It provides specific communication strategies for minimizing bias and for appealing to a range of values including justice,
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Communication Strategies for a More Equitable Workplace
Equity and Communication synthesizes research on equitable communication to recommend concrete, specific actions that can move us to more equitable workplaces. It provides specific communication strategies for minimizing bias and for appealing to a range of values including justice, equity, and fairness.
Equity and Communication is a volume in The Bedford Series for Technical and Professional Communication, a set of flexible, affordable texts that provide research-driven coverage and real-world case studies and examples to help readers hone their writing and communication skills for a variety of technical and professional contexts. Other volumes in the series include:
- Writing with Focus, Clarity, and Precision
- Writing Proposals
- Writing about Data
- Team Writing, 2e
“This is the book we need right now to teach equity and communication to help those who are invested in issues of social justice and communication carefully teach a variety of concepts simplistically.”– Sweta Baniya, Virginia Tech“The author successfully distills a lot of research into concrete cases and helpful tips. They avoid a list of do's and don't's and offer solid grounding to anyone interested in cross-cultural communication.”– Andreea Ritivoi, Carnegie Mellon University“This is an exciting series that breathes fresh life into a business writing course because of the various books within the series, taking topics and dedicating a book to each rather than presented as chapters in a larger text. The series truly becomes customizable to course goals and learning objectives.”– Laura La Flair, Belmont Abbey College
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Breaking the bias habit
Case Study: What is in a name?
- For Discussion: The effects of a name
Implicit bias is pervasive
For Discussion: What are the inequities anyway?
Implicit biases can be reduced with sustained effort and strategy
- Callout: Implicit biases are not just an individual problem
- Exercise 1.1: Take two implicit bias tests
- There are evidence-based strategies for reducing implicit bias
- For Discussion: Visualize yourself using the bias reduction strategies
- We need external structures as well as internal change
Advocating for organizational change means persuading others to reduce bias
- Focus on actions rather than mindsets
- For Discussion: Mindsets vs. Actions
- Appeal to values other than equity when advocating for actions
- Exercise 1.2: Appealing to values other than equity
- Distinguish between action-based and philosophical arguments
- For Discussion: Action-based versus philosophical arguments
- Callout: Limit “controlling” arguments that make people feel pressure to comply
Is this book for me?
Summary
- Exercise 1.3: Keep a bias-breaking diary
Chapter 2: Overcoming Inequities in Conversations and Meetings
Intrusive interruptions reinforce power dynamics
- Callout: Not all interruptions are intrusive
Implicit biases determine whose ideas are heard
- Exercise 2.1: Analyze a meeting
Conversational inequities are bad for organizations
Individual actions you can take to serve as an ally
- Practice counter-stereotypic imagining before meetings
- Use your voice to include others
- Manage your own interruptions
- Reflect and follow up after the meeting
For Discussion: Structural changes to make meetings more equitable
- Institute a “no interruptions” rule
- Take turns
- Adopt decision-making rules
- Use polling, text-based discussion, and other tools
- Collect post-meeting feedback
- Callout: When people resist structure
- For Discussion: What if you are the one being interrupted?
What to say: Scripts for reducing conversational inequities
- For Discussion: Advocating for equity
Summary
- Exercise 2.2: Reflect on your own conversational interactions
- Exercise 2.3: Disrupt conversational inequities
Chapter 3: Making Evaluation and Feedback Fair and Equitable
Case Study
Evaluation and feedback are pivotal to our growth and development
Common biases in evaluations and feedback
- Stereotype fit governs who we perceive as competent
- Callout: In-group biases
People with low stereotype fit have their personalities criticized
People with low stereotype fit receive inflated feedback relative to their evaluation scores
Underrepresented individuals receive less actionable advice
Ambiguities accelerate bias
- Exercise 3.1: Generic Performance Evaluation
Creating a system: Actions that can make evaluation and feedback more equitable
- Exercise 3.2: Rewriting criteria to be less subject to bias
- Collect data
- Exercise 3.3: Considering evidence
- Evaluate one criterion at a time across all individuals
- Equalize feedback
- For Discussion: Actionable Feedback
- Exercise 3.4: Communicate that your standards are consistent for everyone
- Conduct feedback reviews and hold reviewers accountable
What to do if you are on the receiving end of biased feedback
- If you believe that you have received inflated or vague feedback…
- If you feel that you have received a biased evaluation or biased feedback…
Advocating for change in organizations
For Discussion: Arguments for change
Summary
- Exercise 3.5: Reflect on a recent evaluation
Chapter 4: Biases in hiring, promotion, and salary negotiations
Inequities in networking, sponsorship, and mentoring
- Steps institutions can take to reduce inequities in networking
- Steps job-seekers can take to navigate inequities sponsorship and networking
- Exercise 4.1: Attitudes towards networking and mentorship
- Steps institutions can take to reduce inequities in negotiation
- Steps job-seekers can take to navigate inequities in negotiation
- Exercise 4.2: Reframe the focus
- For Discussion: Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets
- Institutions can describe the position and organization to attract diversity
- Job-seekers should apply for “stretch” jobs
- For Discussion: Words and phrases to attract diverse individuals
- Exercise 4.3: Language of job postings
Inequities in job interviews
- Institutions can conduct structured interviews and resume reviews
- Job-seekers can try to redirect unstructured interviews
Other communication strategies that those with influence can adopt
- Tailor rejection notices with care
- Be an advocate
Advocating for organizational change
- For Discussion: Advocating for equity
Summary
- Exercise 4.3: Reflect on your job search and negotiation strategies
Chapter 5: Reducing Bias by Improving Cross-Cultural Communication
Callout: World Englishes: A Case Study
Common Biases Affecting Cross-Cultural Communication
- Accentism
- Grammar and Style Bias
- Cultural ethnocentrism
- For Discussion: Reducing implicit biases based in cultural ethnocentrism
Listening through cultural differences
Realize that you will quickly become a better listener
Learn how to ask for clarification
Research common pronunciation challenges and substitutions
Exercise 5.1: Research pronunciation patterns
Pick an environment where you can see body language
Use writing to help supplement speech
Practice patience, understanding, and respect
Reading and writing across cultural differences
- Common cultural differences in writing and organization
- Exercise 5.2: Cultural differences in document design
- Co-authoring with someone from another culture
Speaking and communicating across cultural differences
- Avoid idioms and slang
- Exercise 5.3: Idioms
- Use gestures and visual stimuli
- Callout: Avoid emblematic (or symbolic) gestures
- Exercise 5.4: Gestures
- Speak slowly and reword if you see signs of confusion
- Check in frequently
- For Discussion: Practice checking in
Minimizing cross-cultural miscommunications
- Research nonverbal communication
- Research politeness norms
- Research your audience’s culture
- Surface disagreements
- Exercise 5.5: Research politeness norms
Communicating as a non-native speaker
- See the benefits of your accent
- Callout box: Be cautious about calling attention to accents, even to compliment them
- Give people permission to ask for clarification
- For Discussion: Communicating as a non-native speaker
Advocating for organizational change
- For Discussion: Advocating for equity
Summary
- Exercise 5.6: Reflect on your cross-cultural interactions
Chapter 6: Communicating with Ability in Mind: Overcoming the Deficit Mindset
Improving access adds value
Designing meetings for universal communication
- Amplify speech and minimize distractions
- For Discussion: Making live events accessible
Designing documents for universal communication
- Use built-in headings and styles
- Anchor links with descriptive text
- Provide alternative text for images
- For Discussion: Captions and alt text
- Exercise 6.1: Crafting captions and alt text for three non-decorative images
- Do not rely on color alone to convey information
- Avoid ALL CAPS
Simplify content and style
Use accessibility checkers
- Exercise 6.2: Designing accessible documents
Normalize accommodating difference
Callout: The Limits of accommodations
- Be proactive in asking if people need support
- Ask about accommodations when scheduling events
What if you need to advocate for your own accommodations?
Advocating for organizational change
- For Discussion: Advocating for equity
Summary
- Exercise 6.3: Reflect on a public meeting or event
- Exercise 6.4: Reflect on an accommodation you could have benefitted from
Chapter 7: Cultivating Psychological Safety
Case Study
Psychological safety is good business
Psychological safety lays the groundwork for equity
- For Discussion: Laying the groundwork for psychological safety
What you can do to make peers feel psychologically safe
- Callout: A note on authenticity
- Practice active listening
- For Discussion: Discuss mistakes analytically by exploring root causes
- For Discussion: Role-playing root cause analysis
- Raise complaints and issues using a positive, future focus
- Exercise 7.1: Crafting positive, future-focused statements
- For Discussion: Root cause analysis vs. Positive, future-focused complaints
- Provide support if you notice someone treated unkindly or unfairly
How team leaders and managers can create psychological safety
- Seek out difference
- Share your own past mistakes with your team
- For Discussion: Sharing past feedback
- Be transparent and open about decisions
- Measure psychological safety
What if you do not feel psychologically safe?
- Recognize that feeling out of place is normal and temporary
- Get to know people
- Learn strategies for raising issues diplomatically
- Exercise 7.2: Advocacy-Inquiry Statements
- Suggest that your organization measure psychological safety
Advocating for institutional change
Summary
- Exercise 7.3: Keep an accountability diary
Appendices
Appendix 1: Median salaries by race and gender
Appendix 2: Self-reported happiness and suicide rates by race and gender
Authors
Joanna Wolfe
Joanna Wolfe (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Director of the Global Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where she develops new methods for improving communication instruction across the university. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles on teamwork, gender studies, collaborative learning technology , technical writing, and rhetoric Her research on collaborative writing in technical communication classes won the 2006 NCTE award for best article reporting qualitative or quantitative research in technical and scientific communication.
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