BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Rory Sutherland explores a selection of fresh, intriguing and iconoclastic ideas

Thought Cages: For Greater Diversity, Be Less Fair

For Greater Diversity, Be Less Fair

BBC Radio 4 - Thought Cages, For Greater Diversity, Be Less Fair

Challenging received wisdoms. Has obsessively measuring diversity made us less equal?

Rory Sutherland pokes a stick at received wisdoms. Today, whether our obsession with trying to measure gender diversity by 'rational' metrics has made society less equitable.

Society rightly craves greater more diversity in the way its businesses, institutions and systems are composed. But is our obsession with measuring this with “rational” metrics ruining any chance of a truly free, fair world?
Rory’s joined by the Darwinian philosopher and rationalist Helena Cronin from the London School of Economics – who vividly describes the subject as a “third rail issue – touch it, and you die”. She explains how measuring outcomes – percentage distributions of males and females across the employment world – is a terribly blunt instrument to assess the complex world of sex differences, and the very real issue of discrimination in the modern world.

Produced by Steven Rajam for BBC Wales

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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For Greater Diversity, Be Less Fair

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