The Diversity Landscape

When developing strategies to change or improve a situation, it s important to understand the current or baseline factors relating to that situation. This chapter offers a brief overview of the dynamics of the present civil engineering workforce as they pertain to diversity, including an overview of the traditional workforce and the challenges faced by those professionals who do not necessarily fit the traditional mold. 

The perspectives presented in this chapter are intended to lay the groundwork for discussions in subsequent chapters on worker retention, recruitment, and career development. By necessity, this chapter contains broad generalizations that - like any generalizations - will have many exceptions in individual workplaces. However, on the whole, a picture is painted of exclusion versus inclusion, differences versus similarities, and the status-quo versus emerging challenges. 

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The Diversity Landscape (Chapter 2) is a primer on what diversity looks and feels like in the current civil engineering workforce. 

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