Equality & Diversity Summer Reading

For me, summer delights include freshly picked fruit and some time to read. Over the last six months, I’ve been organising various equality and diversity events. Here some of the interesting things I would like to suggest as summer reading on equality & diversity. Nothing academic – easy to read and maybe inspiring. Anybody like to add something in the comments section or on twitter.

One PDF

• Work and wellbeing in the NHS
  Comment: This is a summary of why the wellbeing of clinical staff and all their colleagues is important.

Some online resources & inspiration

• Stories from NHS Employees about Equality and Diversity week 2016
• 10 Words Every Girl Should Learn
• Letting Go of Judging People and The Heartbreaking Cruelty of Comparing Yourself to Others

Some TED Talks

• Yassmin Abdel-Magied: What does my headscarf mean to you?
  “We all have our biases. They’re the filters through which we see the world around us.”
  Comment: Great challenge to support people different to ourselves.
• Vernā Myers: How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them
  “Biases are the stories we make up about people before we know who they actually are.”
  Comment: Focussed on the US but relevant to the whole world!
• Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols: This is what LGBT life is like around the world
  “It’s a love story”.
  Comment: this brought a tear to my eye.
• Michael Kimmel: Why gender equality is good for everyone — men included
  “Privilege is invisible to those who have it”
  Comment: It’s quite funny. Aimed at men – relevant to us all.

Books

• “How To Win Friends and Influence People”
  By Dale Carnegie
  Comment: This remains one of the best books on communication that I have ever read and the advice is timeless. I like
• “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey
  Comment: One of the best selling self help books – I like “Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood”

Some other books

• “The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone” by Kate Pickett & Richard Wilkinson
  Comment: It’s controversial, some of the graphs are poorly labelled but it’s thought provoking.
• “Start Where You Are: How to accept yourself and others” by Pema Chödrön (Author)
  Comment: I found this book very useful for developing compassion towards myself first and then others.