We need diversity; diversity drives innovation, and diversity is key to our growth as individuals, and as organizations. There is a strong business case for diversity, but to make it sustainable we also need inclusion. It is not enough to bring different people together, but we must create an inclusive environment that embraces people’s differences and allows each and every person to thrive.
As individuals, we can promote increased diversity through inclusive leadership, without necessarily having the formal title or role of a leader. The first step can be to become aware of our own biases, and make a conscious effort to not let those biases impact our actions. The technology industry would benefit immensely from increased inclusive leadership, and software testing is a good place to start. Testers are user advocates, and for testers to accurately represent the diversity of users, the group of testers should be diverse too. Testing as a profession also needs to get more innovative and creative, which could be translated into a need for testing to become more diverse.