Profile: Carol Dickson

Carol Dickson describes herself as a "people person." And she says working in the Cochise County Extension office is the "best place to work for someone like me." "We get people from everywhere with all kinds of needs. It's all about accepting people."

In Willcox, Carol grew up with 4-H; she remembers her favorite project was sewing. After working for the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) and the local Chamber of Commerce, Carol joined Cochise County Extension in 1978. She's been there ever since, and is now the Administrative Assistant.

"I've been just about everything in our office and worked in every department ag, home economics and 4-H. It's a busy office, different and fun."

Carol has been honored for the quality of her work; in 1989, she was recognized as the Extension Staff Person of the Year. "I was so thrilled I never thought that would happen to me." In 1992-1993, she was part of the MAP2 program in Tucson directed at minorities. "It helped me build my confidence and was an excellent way to learn leadership skills." Carol was the first non-campus staff person to serve on the College of Agriculture Staff Council. Her three-year term expired in June 1996, but she's happy that another non-campus staff member has been elected to fill her slot.

Her work for Extension keeps her busy, but Carol finds time to serve as Coordinator for the Community Loan Closet that donates medical equipment, such as walkers and hospital beds, to those in need. Also, for eight years she has been a chaperon for her church's teen programs.

"I come from a background of helping others."

For three generations, Carol Dickson's family, the Aguilar's, have lived in Cochise County. Her maternal great-grandmother was part Aztec, coming from near Mexico City. "She told us lots of stories before she died at age 105," Carol says. As she grows older, Carol has become ever more strongly attracted to the Aztec culture.

She still remembers being taken aback by tourists in the Chamber office who wanted to know about her Indian inheritance "because your cheekbones look Indian." She was always proud of her Hispanic heritage, but that was one of the first times she thought about being Aztec, too.

"When I grew up, I didn't know we were different. I grew up in a house of rainbows, because everyone was welcome."

Unconscious Influences

Most people don't wake up thinking, "Whom can I discriminate against today?" or "Let's see how I can be unfair." Yet it happens, often because we're influenced unconsciously.

Movie images, newspaper articles, television and radio, talk shows, comedian's routines, and even everyday conversations are full of stereotypical views about safe neighborhoods, good schools, good and bad parts of town. Gangs, graffiti, poverty, drugs, and prostitution are often associated with minorities in popular media.

A book (Don't Believe the Hype) by Farai Chideya reports that in sports news coverage, 75% of the adjectives used to describe white football players referred to brains, but 65% of those used for black players referred to brawn. The same differences in references happened in professional and college basketball. Eighty percent of references to stupid plays were about blacks.

After hearing many references, we can absorb the attitudes without even realizing their unfairness.

Also, experience is a powerful teacher. If you've had problems or a series of negative interactions with people of a particular group, you'll be less likely to spend time and energy with the next person representing that group.

The challenge is to continue to see each person as new, each situation as unique, each interaction as a fresh opportunity to have a productive and positive experience.

Lee Gardenswartz and Anita Rowe, diversity consultants, trainers and authors, Managing Diversity, 5/96

"We Just Want the Opportunity"

Darrell Lauer has been blind since childhood; he's one of an estimated 45 million Americans who have some form of disability. Lauer also is an example of the potential benefits of employing a disabled person.

He travels around the country, dealing with national disabled groups for Southwestern Bell. He regards his frequent need to travel simply as part of his job, little more difficult than if he were sighted. Lauer says, "I believe I can do almost everything that anyone else can do, only sometimes I must do it in a different way.

"Technology, such as the optical scanner that converts written words into voice-synthesized spoken ones, is rapidly making many physical disabilities invisible. The greatest actual barrier left for the disabled is the perception by the public that a disability is far more limiting than it actually is.

"The disabled don't want special treatment. They just want to be given the opportunity to show how well they can perform on the job."

Workforce Diversity, IABC Communication Bank

Gestures Cause Mixed Signals

Thanks to easy travel, telecommunications, and increasing worldwide trade the world village has shrunk dramatically. And, cultures are inadvertently sending mixed signals to each other more and more often.

"The seasoned traveler never takes any gesture for granted," says Nancy Lin, an American interpreter living in Brussels. "American gesture are not always understood outside the U.S., no matter how many TV shows have been exported."

In Australia and parts of West Africa, the routine thumbs-up gesture can bring a punch in the nose. In Indonesia, beckoning with the forefinger is used only to call animals; it's an insult to use the gesture with people. In many Islamic countries, shaking a woman's hand could mean a jail sentence, because touching women who are not family is strictly forbidden.

Even handshakes differ. The firm, American-style grip can signal aggressiveness in the Middle East and Europe. Japanese business people make a pointed effort to shake hands with Westerners, but making eye contact is a sign of disrespect. Conversely, always make eye contact in the Arab world; averting your eyes is a sign of insincerity.

Surprisingly, no single gesture has a universal meaning everywhere in the world. Travelers need to unlearn those gestures unique to their culture and learn the body language of the country they're visiting. Be aware of the body language you're unwittingly using. At best, your gestures may be unintelligible; at worst they may be highly offensive.

Excerpted from The Buffalo News

Pioneering Female Executives

If you want to be a successful woman executive, here are the two most critical factors:

These factors surfaced in a survey of senior-level women in business, reported in Women in Corporate Leadership: Progress and Prospects, done by Catalyst. The trailblazing women surveyed earned an average annual income of $248,000; two-thirds have post-graduate degrees; more than 90% are Caucasian; and 44% report directly to the CEO or are only one level away. Almost 75% are married and 64% have children; 75% are the primary breadwinners of the family.

More than half the women cited male stereotyping and preconceptions as barriers to advancement; 49% said they were excluded from informal networks of communication. The CEOs, on the other hand, believed the major obstacles to women's advancement were lack of general management/line experience and not being in the "pipeline" long enough. Women also ranked these as barriers, although not as important.

Companies that want to foster female advancement should, according to both CEOs and surveyed executives:

  • Demonstrate top-level commitment to lifting barriers;
  • Take risks on high-potential women;
  • Rotate women into operational and line management positions;
  • Help all employees balance work and personal responsibilities.

Women in Corporate Leadership; Catalyst Publications Department; 212-777-8900 Ext. 339

Mentor Match-up Programs

Until now finding a mentor has been a hit-or-miss proposition. Now two organizations have formalized mentorships for women, with a twist. Companies pay for the programs.

WOMEN Unlimited (Women's Organization for Mentoring, Education and Networking) is based in New York. Companies pay the group to match female managers with higher-ranking mentors both men and women at other companies. This technique eliminates the political tensions that can build among employees of the same firm.

Apparently the approach works. Out of 96 participants, 33 changed jobs and 19 of these jumped up to management level. In a control group without mentors, women were more likely to move sideways or down.

Another group was launched with a U.S. Labor Department grant. The International Women's Forum Leadership Foundation is a year-long program of conferences, seminars at Harvard and time spent at their mentor's workplace. The return for their employers: more skilled and confident employees who can then act as mentors themselves.

Programs cost employers between $3,000 and $5,000; scholarships are available.

Hagar Scher, Working Woman magazine 1/96

Progress?

"What little progress has been made by minorities in higher education has been the result of two things: desegregation and affirmative action," testified Reginald Wilson, senior scholar for the American Council on Education, before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee.

He said desegregation forced open schools, and affirmative action tried to give minorities at least an equal chance to compete for jobs.

"It has worked to a modest extent. In 1981, blacks made up 4.1 percent of the college faculty; in 1991, they made up 4.7 percent. Affirmative action is a very conservative, artificial policy that has attempted to change gradually our artificial policies, legal and illegal, of discrimination. It has aroused such emotion partly due to what it symbolizes rather than what it really has done.

"Americans often confuse symbols with reality. For example, we pay tribute to the symbols of merit, individualism, and a color blind society. And that's good, because it gives us something to aspire to. But they should not be confused with the reality of American life.

"I am not wedded to affirmative action. All I ask of its critics is to show me another way to overcome the inequities of an American society filled with racism and sexism. Then I'll know they're sincere."

In "Issues," American Council on Education, Higher Education & National Affairs, 9/95

It's a Muddle

When people talk about the dominant U.S. culture being white males, that's wrong, says Harris Sussman of the Diversity University. "When we talk about women being a minority, that's wrong. When we talk about "minorities" being a minority, that's wrong.

"For the first time "Other" outnumbers Asians, Hispanics or African-Americans. "Other" is now the primary minority in the United States, second only to "white. But "white" is a mixture, a combination, a hybrid category of its own." The U.S. government scrambles cultures, nationalities, ethnic groups, races and skin colors, which amazes and confuses most of the rest of the world.

"When we say "white male," it's shorthand for "white, heterosexual, Christian, healthy, English-speaking, non-immigrant, native-born, non-Hispanic," and probably some other things. It's a political term."

Dr. Harris Sussman, Diversity University,, 1-800-827-1783, in Managing Diversity 12/95

Resources

Contemporary Conversations: Understanding and Managing Diversity in the Modern World , by Dr. Linda Human, discusses the culturally competent individual and the qualities that must be skillfully managed for competence to happen. Written for lay people. Available from Goree Institute, La Maison du Soudan, P.O. Box 5, L'Ille de Goree, Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, email: goree-institute@endadak.gn.apc.org

Cultural Diversity Fieldbook contains more than 100 articles, exercises, interviews and essays from mainstream, business and nontraditional press. Copies are available for $26.95 from HR Press, P.O. Box 28, Fredonia, NY 14063; 1-800-444-7139

The Office of the American Workplace has gone on-line. The Best Practices Clearinghouse is now available in an electronic bulletin board, The database contains files with information on workplace training, worker-management partnerships, teamwork, employment involvement, and innovative compensations systems. To contact via computer and modem, dial 202-219-7088.

The Diversity Awareness and Cultural Competence Information Line is a 900 service that works with managers interested in diversity management. The cost per minute is $1.49, available 24 hours per day. For more information about the line, call W. Brower & Associates at 910-483-5943 or call the service at 1-900-267-4781.

Vision:  To affect positive change in the CALS community by valuing differences and building respect.
The University of Arizona is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or sexual orientation in its programs and activities.


Content Questions/Comments: Billye Foster (billye@cals.arizona.edu) or Steven Crofts (scrofts@cals.arizona.edu)
Last Updated: 05/16/2005