The Role of Law and Myth in Creating a Workplace that 'Looks Like America'

Abstract

Equal employment opportunity (EEO) law has played a poor role in incentivizing effective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and harassment prevention programming. In litigation and investigation, too many judges and regulators credit employers for maintaining policies and programs rather than requiring that employers embrace efforts that work. Likewise, many employers and consultants fail to consider the organizational effects created by DEI and harassment programming. Willful blindness prevents the admission that some policies and programming, although not all, harm those most in need of protection. This approach has resulted in two problems. One is a doctrinal dilemma because important presumptions embedded in anti-discrimination law are tethered to employer practices, many of which do not promote EEO. Simultaneously, society faces an organizational predicament because employer practices are driven by unexamined myths about how to achieve bias and harassment-free environments. Neo-institutional theory explains how this form-over-substance approach to EEO law and practice began and has evolved. This article argues that favorable conditions exist for a shift from a cosmetic to an evidence-based approach to legal compliance. Three developments mark the way forward: 1) a pathbreaking Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) report; 2) the EEOC’s call for better research on DEI and harassment prevention program efficacy; and 3) new social science research on those organizational efforts most likely to succeed and those most likely to prompt backlash. To facilitate evidence-based EEO compliance, this article advocates changes in liability standards. Also recommended is the creation of a supervised research safe harbor for employers willing to work with researchers and regulators to assess and continuously improve their DEI and harassment prevention efforts. Finally, the article suggests lawyers more frequently employ Brandeis briefs in litigation to place social science research directly in front of jurists. Solving the twin problems wrought by cosmetic compliance requires taking seriously the findings of social scientists. An evidence-based approach to DEI and harassment prevention would assist in restoring the promise of EEO law to create healthy, diverse, and bias free American workplaces.