EDI Glossary

Ableism: Individual or systemic discrimination against people with physical disabilities and/or are neurodivergent. Ableism favours people without disabilities, and is often inherent in the workplace, such as when a building is not accessible to all.

Accessibility: Something is accessible when it is available to all.  

Improving accessibility means removing barriers that challenge or prevent a person from accessing spaces, information, activities, opportunities.

It is most commonly used in relation to disability, where accessibility might mean providing step-free access and ramp entry; providing hearing loops; etc.

Ageism: Discriminating against or prejudging someone because of their age. A systemic example might be advertising an apprenticeship as suitable for a “young person”; an individual example might be characterising older people as unable to learn.

Allyship: Refers to the act of (a person or group of people) taking on someone else’s fight for social justice as if it were their own.

However, the idea that social justice work is the responsibility of minoritised groups is felt to be a limiting and unhelpful way to view the impact of injustice and systemic oppression.

Anti-oppression: Actively challenging and aiming to dismantle systems of oppression through your actions, theories and strategies.

Antiracism: Taking actions and having ideas that aim to challenge and dismantle systemic racism and individual acts of racism. 

E.g. direct action such as intervening if somebody makes a racist joke. Educating that person and ensuring the subject of the joke is safe and supported.

E.g. protesting against examples of institutional racism such as the killing of George Floyd.

Biphobia: Fear, hatred, or discomfort towards those who are sexually or romantically attracted to more than one gender. Can often be displayed through words, actions, or behaviours such as negative stereotypes about attractions to more than one gender, denial that being bi is a genuine orientation, and/or bi erasure.

Body-shaming: Humiliating someone based on their size, body shape or body characteristics. This can relate to sexist ideals (such as criticising a man for not matching a muscular idea of masculine appearance), fat-phobia / obesophobia, or both.

Classism: Socio-economic discrimination, in which people are treated differently according to their class background. 

Individual examples of classism might be assuming that people lack intelligence because they have a particular accent, or do not work a high-paying job.  Examples of systemic classism include favouring people from particular schools or universities for job opportunities; and providing poor-quality social housing to working-class people.

Coalition: When two or more groups work together to achieve the same goal.

The LGBTQ+ community can be seen as a coalition; while there is huge diversity among people who identify as queer,  they may feel they have faced similar forms of oppression and can support and advocate for each other’s right to be themselves - ultimately forming a stronger and more powerful bloc.

Code-switching: Assimilating into different social groups as a means of survival for minoritised groups so they face less discrimination. This includes altering your appearance, mannerisms and often down-playing certain aspects of your identity.

E.g. altering your accent and slang/accent way you speak in certain contexts, depending on who you are speaking to.

“Colour blindness” / colour ignorance: Not being willing to acknowledge race. The issue with such ignorance means accepting an equality and similarity between people of colour and white people that doesn’t exist. Being ignorant to the lived experience, cultures, discrimination and prejudices people of colour have. 

E.g. “I don’t see race! I treat everyone the same”. The issue with this statement is that instead of reassuring a person of colour, it erases their racial identity.

Colourism: Showing preference to those of lighter skin colour, typically within the same ethnic or racial group, for example, lighter-skinned Black people get preferential treatment because they fit Eurocentric beauty standards more than those with darker skin tones.  

E.g. enslavers would choose enslaved people who were lighter-skinned to work indoors, and darker-skinned people to work in harsh conditions outdoors.

E.g. in culture and the media, often lighter-skinned Black women are cast in Black roles on TV.

E.g. bleaching skin and using skin-lightening products are common practice in many cultures, particularly among women, to feel beautiful, a hangover of Eurocentric beauty standards.

Decolonisation: Undoing colonial systems within a society and freeing ourselves of the ideological, cultural and social effects of colonialism. 

E.g. the British Museum returning stolen artefacts to their native origin 

E.g. removing statues of colonists and/or enslavers from public spaces. 

Disability: The Social Model's definition of disability is that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. Barriers can be physical or they can be caused by people's attitudes to difference.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), disability results from the interaction between individuals with a health condition. A person’s environment has a huge effect on the experience and extent of disability. Inaccessible environments create barriers that often hinder the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in society on an equal basis with others.

Other definitions that some consider to be outdated or an incomplete way of defining disability: According to the UK Equality Act (2010), the term refers to having a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on a person’s ability to do normal daily activities.

Disprivilege: To deprive a social group of normal privilege, putting them at a disadvantage compared with others. LGBTQ+ people are disprivileged in countries where they do not have equal marriage rights, while people from less-privileged socioeconomic backgrounds may be disprivileged in terms of access to education, jobs, and even the justice system.

Diversity: people from a broad mix of backgrounds, identities and lived experiences. Including (but not limited to) ethnic, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds, ages, genders, sexual orientations, abilities and nationalities. 

Ecofacism: An ideology that politicises the climate and/or nature crisis by blaming it on overpopulation and immigration.

EDI Fatigue: Feeling exhaustion, isolation, frustration, and sometimes scepticism around efforts to create more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces. 

This is a particular problem for minoritised people who have felt “tokenised” without seeing meaningful impact.

Emotional labour: The draining and often-unacknowledged work that goes into supporting or educating others. The emotional labour in a team, community or family might be things like remembering everyone's birthdays or supporting other people's mental health. Or it could be informal EDI work, such as when a Black person is called on to explain racism.

While some people are willing to take on emotional labour in the workplace, it's important this is not expected from anyone, especially disprivileged or marginalised groups.

Equality: The right of different groups of people to have a similar social position and receive the same treatment.

Equity: The situation in which everyone is treated fairly to reach equal outcomes. Recognising the various needs that people may have.

Fat-phobia / obesophobia: Fear, hatred, or discomfort towards people who are overweight or obese, expressed as discrimination and harassment.

E.g. Criticising someone’s fashion choices because they don’t fit a certain body type.

Gaslighting: Bringing into question a person’s interpretation of an event that can cause them to question their own thoughts. It can also undermine their emotions and create a false version of events that impacts the reputation of a person who has been mistreated.

E.g. a victim has been sexually assualted in the work place, encouraging them that such an incident wasn’t actually sexual assault and “it's all in your head”.

Gender binary: Classifying gender and gender expression as two distinct and opposite categories of man/woman and masculine/feminine. Non-binary people and intersex people do not identify with or fit into this rigid structure of gender.

Gender expression: How a person outwardly shows their gender through their clothes, hair, makeup, body language, voice etc.

Gender identity: A person’s sense of their own gender, for some, this corresponds to their sex and for others, it might not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth. Some people view gender as a spectrum which means it is not categorised into a binary of two opposite identities: man or woman.

Global majority: Refers to people of colour (PoC or BIPoC) who, make up the majority of the world’s population. 

Homophobia: Fear, hatred, or discomfort towards those who are sexually or romantically attracted to the same gender. Can often be displayed through words, actions, or behaviours such as negative stereotypes about LGBTQ+ people.

Implicit bias (or unconscious bias): Refers to attitudes and beliefs that occur outside of our conscious awareness and control. They are unconscious attitudes and stereotypes that can manifest in our actions and decision-making.

Imposter syndrome - feeling inadequate, undeserving or unqualified even when you are capable and qualified. Having a fear that you might be found out as “not good enough.” This feeling is the result of systemic and interpersonal oppression and is heightened when you belong to a minority social group, e.g. being the only woman, the only ethnically minoritised person, the only person with a disability in the workplace.

Inclusion: The act of giving access to different types of people in respect of their individual value, allowing fair and equal participation.

Institutional oppression: Any bias within a specific institution that produces unequal outcomes for particular groups.

E.g. a 2023 study found UK women of Black ethnic backgrounds were four times more likely than white women to die in childbirth, and Asian women almost twice as likely.

Internalised Oppression: When an individual is discriminated against and oppressed and begins to believe in and live according to their oppressors’ misinformation, belief system, values, and way of life.

For example, women criticising girls and women for being “bossy”, when a male behaving the same way would be praised as “assertive” or “a leader”.

Interpersonal oppression: Interactions between people where one person is subordinated.

In practice this might mean anything from using racial slurs in conversation, to assuming the only woman in a work meeting will take notes or make tea.

Intersectionality: Refers to the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect especially in the experiences of marginalised individuals or groups. The different layers of a person’s identity and background overlap and intersect creating a unique lived experience. 

Justice: The maintenance or administration of what is just, especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of rewards or punishments. 

Lesbophobia: Fear, hatred or discomfort towards women who are attracted to women. Can often be displayed through words, actions, or behaviours such as negative stereotypes about lesbians and incomprehensibility that some women are not attracted to men.

LGBTQIA+: The acronym for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, questioning, intersex and ace. It is often used as an umbrella term to describe people who do not identify as heterosexual/straight and or cis-gender. (See individual definitions below)

Lesbian: Feeling emotionally, romantically and/or sexually attracted to other women if you’re a woman. Those who identify as non-binary may also use this term to describe themselves.

Gay: Feeling sexually attracted to another person of the same gender. Also, feeling emotionally, romantically and/or sexually attracted to other men if you’re a man.  

Bi (bisexual): Feeling sexual attraction to two or more genders. Bisexual can mean attracted to men and women in the binary view of gender. Bisexual can also mean being attracted to your own and other genders.

Trans: An umbrella term for people whose innate gender identity and/or expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Queer: Formerly used as a slur, “queer” has been reclaimed by people who do not identify with traditional assumptions of gender and sexuality.  It is often used synonymously with LGBTQ+ as an all-encompassing term for identities.

Intersex: A term used to describe people who have biological attributes of both sexes. Intersex people have diverse and varied gender identities and anatomical characteristics, and may identify as male, female or non-binary.

Ace (asexual): Not feeling sexual attraction or desire for other people.

Liberation: Refers to activities connected with removing the disadvantages experienced by particular groups within society. 

Lived experience:  Having personal knowledge of the challenges experienced by a social group(s) through your own first-hand interactions, encounters and engagements. 

E.g. a person who is deaf has lived experience of deafness and the social barriers that deaf people encounter.

Marginalise: To systematically ignore, exclude, isolate (a person or group) and treat them as unimportant.

Microaggression: A behaviour or comment that devalues or discriminates against people from an underrepresented group. They can often be indirect, subtle, or unintentional. 

Minoritise: To make (a person or group) subordinate in status to a more dominant group or its members. The term signals that there are processes that have caused certain groups to become and remain a minority within certain contexts.

E.g. limited access to positions of power.

Misogynoir: Coined by Black feminist Moya Bailey, having an aversion to, disliking or having contempt for Black women. 

E.g. the hypersexualistation and adultification of Black girls, preventing them from living a safe, enjoyable childhood.

E.g. devaluing, degrading and attacking the successes of athletes such as tennis player Serena Williams, whose successes are repeatedly miscounted, and whose performance on the court is repeatedly overpoliced.

Misogyny: Having an aversion to, disliking or having contempt for women. A consequence of patriarchy, misogyny encapsulates the inherent prejudice against women in a system that accepts a particular version of a man and a specific version of an ideal woman.

E.g. having double standards; judging women’s sexual behaviour differently to a man’s sexual behaviour, e.g. calling a woman a “slut” while celebrating a man’s machisimo for having multiple sexual partners.

E.g. assuming a woman’s roles, interests and purpose in life, e.g. assuming or expecting her to want to be a mother and have children.

E.g. not encouraging women to pursue careers in STEM because of the assumption that she would not be interested, or, because of her gender, she is not skilled enough to accomplish such a career.

Neurodivergent: If a person is neurodivergent it means that their brain functions and processes information in a way that doesn’t align with what society expects. There are many types of neurodivergence including (but not limited to) dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, autism and ADHD.

Neurodiversity: Refers to the different ways the brain can work and interpret information.

Neurotypical: If a person is neurotypical it means that their brain functions and processes information in the way society expects. 

Non-binary: An umbrella term for people who do not identify as ‘man’ or ‘woman’. Some people who are non-binary may identify with different genders and other people might reject gender entirely.

Omni (omnisexual): Being attracted to more than one gender. 

Pan (pansexual): Being emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to another person of any gender. This attraction is not based on the gender or sex of another person. 

Patriarchy: A social system where men have disproportionate social, economic, political power and authority. This system benefits men at the expense of women and other marginalised genders from day-to-day discrimination and prejudice, to structural and systemic inequality.

E.g. raising children and pastoral care is often a role performed by women and is drastically underpaid, if not, unpaid 

E.g. there is minimal medical research on female anatomy, leading to unsafe, inconvenient and invasive health practices around the world and a lack of understanding, knowledge and empowerment around the female body.

“People-first language”: Talking about people as having certain characteristics, rather than defining them solely by one aspect of their identity, which is dehumanising.

For example, a person has diabetes, they are not “a diabetic”; a person has cancer, they are not “a cancer patient”; a person has bipolar disorder, they are not “bipolar”.

People of colour (or PoC or BIPoC): Refers to people who are typically racialised as Black and Brown. Including those who are of African, Arab and Asian descent, as well as many people who identify as Native or Indigenous. The term is derived from within the African-American community.

Power: The ability to control or influence things. A company’s C-suite has the power to implement inclusive policies such as ensuring buildings are accessible, or using inclusive hiring practices. Dominant social groups, individuals or institutions also have more power because they have greater capacity to influence people, decisions and resources.

Privilege: An advantage that only one person or group of people has, because of their position, background, identity or other characteristics. To privilege someone means to treat them better or differently than other people rather than treat them all equally.

Pronouns: Referring to another person using a replacement for their name, pronouns are based on a person’s gender identity. These include but are not limited to: masculine (he/him), feminine (she/her), non-binary/gender neutral (they/them).

Protected characteristic: Under the Equality Act 2010 you have a right to not be treated less favourably, or subjected to an unfair disadvantage, by reason of that characteristic.

There are nine protected characteristics, including age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil union status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Psychological safety: Feeling comfortable to express your ideas, opinions, questions and mistakes in the workplace. This cultivates a culture where people can  learn, contribute to or challenge things in your workplace where people’s different opinions and contributions matter without fear of judgement or retribution.

Racialise: Categorising or dividing based on race.

For example, in a restaurant, white people might be more likely to be put in customer-facing roles and Black people in kitchens. 

Sometimes religious groups are racialised, such as when Jewish people are portrayed as having certain physical characteristics.

Racism: Individual or systemic discrimination against people based on their ethnicity or race. Racism exists in practices, belief systems and political systems. Using a racial slur is an example of racist behaviour by an individual; police stopping and searching more Black than White people is an example of institutional racism. Education statistics that show Black children getting worse outcomes than White or Asian children indicate systemic racism.

Rainbow washing: Signalling support for the LGBTQ+ community such as using rainbow colours in marketing materials for consumer credibility without substantially and pragmatically supporting LGBTQ+ people.

E.g. using the rainbow symbol superficially during Pride month in the workplace without putting in the effort to support LGBTQ+ people, such as donating to a charity or organisation.

Reasonable adjustments: Making changes in your workplace to enable people with different access needs to work to their best of their ability. This prevents people from being disadvantaged in their workplace because of their accessibility needs.

In the UK, this is a legal requirement under the Equality Act.

Religious discrimination: Treating people differently based on their religious beliefs and practices.

E.g. Uyghur Muslims in China are subjected to systematic violence and endure legal restrictions that affect their ability to practise their faith, while Christians in Egypt report difficulties getting jobs or planning permits.

Sexism: Individual or systemic discrimination against and prejudice based on one's sex or gender. Living in a patriarchal society, where men have held power and influence in society and government, has led to unconscious and conscious bias, discrimination and prejudice against women and minoritised gender identities.

Social class: Class can be a loaded term. It encompasses a range of socio-cultural and geographical factors. The term can invoke a range of tacit assumptions and practices, from how to dress and talk to food choices and hobbies. Socio-economic background is deemed to be a more appropriate term.

Social mobility: Refers to the link between an individual’s income and occupation and the income and occupation of their parents. It is about where people end up in comparison to their parents or relative to their peers. It is widely adopted as a way of describing the importance of creating opportunities for individuals from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds to enable them to become more economically successful.

Socio-economic background (SEB): Refers to the particular set of social and economic circumstances that an individual has come from. 

Socio-economic status (SES): Refers to the particular set of social and economic circumstances that an individual is currently experiencing. 

Systemic oppression:  When ideological, legal, social, medical, educational and day to day contexts cause biased outcomes, disadvantaging one or more groups.

E.g. in the UK, Black people are more likely to be stopped and searched compared to their white counterparts, due to racial stereotyping.

E.g. European research shows that women continue to do more housework than men, as it is still seen as “their job”.

Tokenism: Giving the appearance of a diverse and inclusive environment. This is not genuine diversity, equity and inclusion and often individuals from minoritised groups who experience tokenism do not feel comfortable or included in their workplace.

E.g. promoting an employee of a minoritised group because of their gender or race, such as a woman of colour, rather than because of their experience, knowledge or skills., to appear as though the workplace is diverse.

E.g. on workplace brochures, websites and advertisements, taking photographs of people of colour where they are a minoritised in their workplace but to give the appearance of a diverse workplace.

Tone policing: Downplaying, belittling or silencing an individual by addressing the way they are expressing themselves rather than the point they are making. 

An example might be telling a woman who makes a complaint about sexism in the workplace that she is being emotional. (Think of David Cameron’s famous remark to a member of Parliament: “Calm down, dear.”)

LGBTQ+ people may be belittled for presenting themselves in a gender nonconforming way; while people of colour are commonly accused of being loud or aggressive instead of having their concerns listened to and acted upon.

Transphobia: The fear, hatred, or discomfort towards those whose gender identity or expression is different to the sex they were assigned at birth. Can often be displayed through words, actions, or  behaviours such as negative stereotypes about trans people, including misgendering them or questioning their right to access gendered public services.

Underserved: Neglecting particular social groups by providing them inadequate resources, services or facilities. In the UK underserved communities are often those with a large population of global majority citizens. 

E.g. the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 led to the death of 72 residents due to structural negligence in social housing.

Virtue signalling: Appearing to have knowledge or awareness of social issues, particularly online both for individuals and institutions.

E.g. when an organisation shares an Eid celebration message without taking meaningful action to improve the experience of Muslim people in their workplace.

White supremacy: Believing that White people (as a race) are inherently superior to all other races, ethnicities and cultures, and should be given power and advantages accordingly.

White supremacy is far-reaching but its results can be seen in the underrepresentation of minoritised groups in leadership roles. In 2023, 18% of the UK population identified as belonging to a minoritised ethnic group, but only 10% of MPs were non-white.

Woke: Being aware and alert to societal issues like injustice and inequality. The term was popularised by the Black Lives Matter movement but has become heavily politicised, and people who do not recognise systemic inequality often use it to ridicule progressives.

Xenophobia: Deriving from the Greek word “xeno”, which means alien, strange or foreign, this relates to individual or systemic discrimination against people of other nationalities.

An example might be someone complaining about hearing foreign languages spoken in public, or using negative national stereotypes.