Student: Mariana Rangel Moraes

Essay 1:
Take a look at the Diversity Wheel (Gardenswartz& Rowe). Pick three diversity areas
(for example gender, race or disability) that are most important to you personally not
in relation to work or business!
Reflect upon and explain, why those categories are important to you!

The three dimensions of the Diversity Wheel show the complexity of the human
personality that results from the combination of these areas directly. Some areas have
more impact than others’ do, depending on what is more important to one in particular.
Personally, regarding my own experiences, I have found important these following
categories: gender (inner dimension), geographic location/nationality and educational
background (outer). Altogether, gender, nationality and education have been shaping the
most different aspects of my life since the beginning.
Gender equality has been an issue throughout the human history. The women
role in the society has experienced different changes from a life devoted to taking care
of the family to leaders in great organizations and important countries. Although, it is
undeniable that prejudice against women and gender inequality is still a thing in 2017,
especially where I come from and live currently. In Brazil, men usually earn at least
30% more than women in the same job position do. There are more women than men
studying in universities but men are still the majority in Brazilian companies. Beyond
this, women represent just 8% of the higher positions in big corporations. For those
reasons, several movements concerning defense of women interests have arose in Brazil
in the last decade. We have been experiencing some great changes in gender equality,
e.g. the election of the first women to presidency – the highest executive governmental
position in Brazil – in 2014. However, cultural traces still show a kind of mindset that
put women in difficult position and, that’s why, gender is the most important area in the
diversity wheel for young Brazilian women as me. This is the thing with inner
dimensions, we do not have control about and they define a great part of our lives. I
have not chosen to be born as a woman but now I need to deal with it in a world that
still show traces of masculinity superiority way of thinking. We expect that this kind of
mindset changes as soon as possible, so our kids will not even have to consider gender
as an issue in any aspect of their lives.
In what concerns to the outer dimensions, what I can tell is that the ones which
have had stronger impact in my life so far are the following areas: first, the one related
to geographic location and nationality, then educational background. Regarding to
geographic location and, consequently, nationality, I can say that there are two sides
which I should consider to explain its impact in my life. Considering the positive side, I
can say that it's a privilege to have been born in South America, especially in the
northeast of Brazil. First, natural conditions are great in several ways: the weather is
always warm, there are absolutely no earthquakes or hurricanes and agriculture provides
almost everything such as fruits and vegetables we need. People in Brazil are friendly,
as I have never met elsewhere. Although, not everything is good and the negative side
stands for the several issues I had through my whole life. First, Brazil is currently the
sixteenth most violent country in the world. Due to these high violence rates, people in
Brazil lack freedom in order to protect themselves from the criminals. The cost of living
in Brazil is also a negative issue because it is unfair since the minimum wage is not
enough to provide a reasonable life. Corruption turns everything harder and more
expensive and so on. Therefore, being a Brazilian is some kind of double-edged sword.
Internationally, carrying a Brazilian passport could be considered good. Brazilians are
able to enter most of the countries without applying for a previous visa. On the other
hand, we are not able to work in most countries overseas. Beyond that, there is still a lot
of prejudice against Brazilians abroad. International media usually associates Brazil’s
image with negative stuff creating a bad repercussion among non-brazilians. Thus, my
nationality and geographic location have had major impact in my life in every aspect.
Lastly, educational background is one of the most important areas of my life
concerning the diversity wheel. Where I come from, good education is not available to
everyone. Public schools usually do not provide good level of education and to have a
quality one you usually have to spend great amounts of money. Educational background
usually defines who will have chances of pursuing a good career in Brazil and as the
amount of people looking for job opportunities is way bigger than the actual number of
opportunities, the competition is fierce, which makes quality educational level a
differential. Certainly, my life would be completely different if I was not lucky enough
to have a family that was able to provide me good education and that is why this area is
one of the most meaningful to me.
The diversity wheel has influence not just in one’s personality but also in one’s
life. Some areas could define the whole course of a person existence; therefore, my
experiences made me realize how being a woman in Brazil with a good educational
background affected every little detail in my whole life. This kind of reflection had a
positively result in my current life, making easier to understand past issues. I suggest
that everyone once in a while reflect about their own diversity wheel highlighting the
main categories and noticing its impacts in their life.