I stood by: the role of allies in developing an inclusive and supportive academic environment post #MeToo

ABSTRACT

In this paper, hereinafter referred to as a research note, we present a collation of discussions with allies and diversity champions on what practical steps can be taken to create and foster an inclusive academic community. We begin by understanding the role of allies in forming social change and how their actions (or lack thereof) can affect social norms within an academic institution. From here, we summarise the various interventions our participants suggest to create an inclusive and safe academic community where all members feel they belong. We present three main practices where allies can have influence: as champions of awareness, as champions of procedural change and as champions of de-normalising unacceptable behaviour. We conclude by calling for more research to implement and test the suggested interventions to determine their effectiveness in supporting an inclusive academic community.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• race and sub-culture
• social marketing
• consumer culture
• #MeToo
• academia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.