Noise Control and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Part 1 – What should we be doing?

By Jim Thompson

With the theme of INTER-NOISE 2023 being “A Quieter Society with Diversity and Inclusion”, I thought it might be a good time to look at INCE and the noise control industry relative to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). What follows are my opinions and experiences. Some of what follows may be controversial, but part of the reason for this column is to generate discussion. I am going to speak from an American point of view, but I think what follows is universal. 

Someone recently told me that DEI was not a critical issue. I strongly disagree. DEI is about human rights and that is not politics. Political power does not give the majority or the ruling minority the right to discriminate against or in any other way abuse those in the minority or who are different in any way. 

There are too many examples of this abuse of power and the consequences. It was only 150 years ago that 500,000 Americans died to stop some people being treated as property. Only 80 years ago over 6 million Jews were exterminated due to the insane prejudices of one man and far too many people that went along with him. There are numerous similar examples, and they are continuing at this very moment around the world. 

Before someone dismisses this and says these are extremes and do not have anything to do with DEI in noise control or western societies, remember excluding a group or treating them differently is exactly how the holocaust started. There is a cost to a profession and society every time we diminish a group or prevent their contribution. 

An obvious example is how western society has treated women. In many western countries it has been less than a hundred years since women have had the right to vote. In most western societies women have been banned or strongly discouraged from entering STEM fields. Stories like that of Sophie Germain illustrate how difficult it was for women of extraordinary genius to make their mark in science, much less be recognized. Do you think we have overcome these past prejudices and barriers. It is easy to prove this is not the case. Most students in American universities are women. In a recent study from the National Student Clearing House Research Center, CTEE_Report_Spring_2022.pdf (nscresearchcenter.org), shows over 69% of college students were women in the US. However, they only represent 14% of practicing engineers, Eng – SWE Fast Facts_Sept 2022, and far less than 50% of engineering students. This is only one example. The same holds for many other underrepresented groups. 

In my lifetime, I have seen many examples of this discrimination in society related to technology and technical education. I attended a university that had formerly been styled as a technical school with a strong military tradition. Only a few years before I enrolled all the students were white males. The day of my orientation, my advisor was proud to tell me the school had just enrolled its first black student. For those thinking ahead, yes, he was on the basketball team. 

There were two women in engineering in my entering freshman class. One I knew well, she was from my high school. She was much brighter than me and I expected she would do well. Before the year was over, she had transferred to math. The second stuck it out and earned a degree in aerospace engineering. 

A few years ago, I was responsible for an engineering team and one of my engineers had worked with a client in India, and we were planning for her to travel there to meet with the customer. The CEO of the company forbade me from sending her. He stated in clear terms that a women could not handle such an assignment. This was one of the reasons I left the company a little later. In addition, that engineer not only left the company, but moved out of engineering completely. 

Obviously, there are other groups who have and continue to face prejudice and discrimination. Working on my Ph D at a different university, I took an applied math class from a professor that taught me more about math than any other I have ever had. He was knowledgeable and great at relating complex mathematical concepts to practical problems. He was originally from Czechoslovakia and spent much of World War II in a concentration camp. He had bad memories of those times and told how he knew he was in trouble when it was mandated that Eigenfunctions would be called Hitler-functions. He called the role at the first of every class for the first few weeks to learn everyone’s names. However, he refused to say Asian names, saying they sounded like someone had opened the China cabinet and all the dishes had crashed on the floor. This is the example I remember to illustrate that those who are abused or mistreated can also abuse and mistreat others. I still remember the look on the Asian students’ faces the first time he made that statement. 

So, you can see why I believe we need to do much more to encourage and support women and other underrepresented groups in noise control. It is much more than saying the door is open. We must help these people to get through the door and support them once they are in. In Part 2, I will talk about the need to provide help and support. 

This is not politics – it is the future of our profession. We need the full participation of all members of our society in noise control if we are going to protect hearing and improve the quality of life for everyone. Programs to encourage diversity in education and STEM should be supported and where possible grown. The next time you are at a noise control conference, look at the audience. Is it 50% or even 14% women? How many minority groups are represented? If you were one of those minority groups, would you have the courage to stand up and ask a question? Would you be confident your unique perspective would be heard?

I urge you to reach out to others and help them to be part of our profession. This is not something that would just be nice to do. Our profession depends on your doing this. If we do not adequately represent our society, we cease to be effective in an environment where a much broader range of perspectives are part of the discussion. While some reactionary groups may pause progress, the future is moving toward much broader inclusion. It is a necessity that we are part of this process.