Diversity Ideology, Alienation and Social Exclusion in the Post U.S.-Civil Rights Era

This paper explores alienation and social exclusion in major transnational corporations.  Specifically, it is interested in the ways that inequality is embedded in the business world through both ideological and structural processes that help to exclude women and minorities while creating opportunities for the majority through “white male bonding.” The result in many corporate settings is a business climate that is hostile to women and minorities.  Such a climate is socially isolating for the few women and minorities who work in middle management or higher positions.  However, under the guise of diversity and inclusion, corporations are able to mask the inequities in the workplace while maintaining the status quo.  Women and minorities in such extreme social situations find themselves not only having to maneuver an uphill battle to keep their jobs or get promoted, they have to do so often while socially, politically, racially, and gender isolated.