Diversity Management and the Postdiversity Vision: An Applied Pragmatist Approach

The U.S. Military institutionalized diversity management to ensure equality of treatment and opportunity for members while eliminating discrimination in all its forms. But progress toward diversity goals has been inconsistent. For example, the U.S. Military’s implementation of the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law was less successful in integrating transgender soldiers. Meanwhile, recent sexual harassment scandals show that progress is similarly fleeting in gender relations. In this article, we argue that while the aims of diversity management are important, they need an accompanying vision of what the future looks like after achieving those aims. The postdiversity vision includes more than the elimination of discriminatory behaviors; it describes what the defense establishment looks like and how it functions when diversity management is no longer required. Expressing this vision allows for more reliable and durable measures of performance and effectiveness of inclusion efforts.