Inclusive work culture? Check your privilege!

If you are interested in anti-discrimination, you may have heard phrases such as “Check your privilege” or “He's not aware of his privilege.” You may also be familiar with terms such as “male privilege.” But what do these terms actually mean, and why is it so important to consider your own social position, particularly in the workplace?

Privilege and diversity go hand in hand

If we want to talk about privilege, we have to start with diversity. Diversity means that people have very different characteristics that shape their experiences, perspectives, and needs. These include social categories such as gender, race, disabilities and chronic illnesses, age, sexual identity, religion, and social status.

However, a common mistake is to locate diversity only in “others” who deviate from the social norm. For example, men often consider themselves “unaffected” by gender issues, or white people do not reflect on their whiteness. But all people are part of this diversity—and only when we understand how norms and affiliations arise can we recognize how easily they become “us” and “them,” ‘privileged’ and “discriminated against.”

Identity shapes our lives - and it's complex

Our personal experience in this world—and also our perception of others—is significantly influenced by our identity characteristics. You can probably think of a few situations in which your age, gender expression, or race had a significant impact on how you experienced it. If you take a closer look at how the social categories to which you belong have played a role in this, you may notice the following: it is often difficult to pin it down to a single characteristic. Our characteristics are not perceived separately from one another, but work in combination and together shape our experiences, opportunities, and needs.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, a Black US American scholar, coined the now widely used term “intersectionality” to describe this phenomenon with regards to the interaction between gender and race: Black women are perceived and evaluated differently and therefore have different experiences than white women or Black men. However, the principle can be applied equally to any intersection of characteristics.

What does that have to do with privilege?

The principle of intersectionality shows us what “privilege” actually means: In short, being viewed more positively, treated better, and/or considered “normal” because of a certain characteristic, compared to people who do not have this characteristic. 

In practice, this can take many forms, from the very small to the very large. And those who hold these privileges often take them for granted. Be honest: how often do you really think about the fact that you have a roof over your head, a job, or the money for coffee on your way to work? If you are white, how often do you notice that you are not being eyed suspiciously in a store or that you don't have to explain to a new person that you are really, honestly, a native of Germany? If you are cisgender, when was the last time you had to think about which bathroom or changing room to use? 

Inclusive work culture requires self-reflection.

Privileges make life easier

As you can see, privileges make our lives easier compared to those who don't have them. And we often assume that everyone else has them too—until we learn otherwise. This is because they reflect social power structures that are often deeply entrenched in the world around us.

What makes it even more complicated is that a person can be privileged in one respect but discriminated against in another—for example, being a cis man but having a disability. And context can also determine whether someone is discriminated against or privileged—for example, someone who experiences racism as a Turkish person in Germany may be perceived as white when traveling to the US and thus be privileged. Privileges, like discrimination, are not always easy to grasp.

You didn't choose your privileges—but they're still real

We don't choose our privileges. “You're privileged” is therefore not an insult; it doesn't mean “you're a bad person”—it just means “you have advantages that other people don't have, and it's important to question that.” And it doesn't mean “you never have a hard time” – it just means “you don't have a hard time because of this particular characteristic.”

You can think of it like a race where everyone is carrying a backpack filled with a certain amount of rocks. Each rock is a characteristic that causes someone to be discriminated against to a greater or lesser extent. Some people only have a small pebble in their backpack, while others carry around entire boulders. That doesn't mean that the person with the emptiest backpack (i.e., the most privileges) automatically wins the race, but at least they’ll likely have a much easier time of it.

What role do privileges play in working life?

What does this mean in the context of work? Those who have privileges are more quickly perceived as “competent” in their jobs, are more likely to be given opportunities, and encounter less resistance. Those who do not have privileges must expend extra energy every day just to be able to participate: they must weather microaggressions, being asked to explain their own existence, barriers that are invisible to others. 

If we take this seriously, we realize that discrimination and privilege are built into structures and must therefore always be considered when we want to make structural changes. We have to ask ourselves: Who is actually speaking here? With what attitude? And from what position?

This first step is crucial for an inclusive work culture because it lays the foundation for everything else. If you are not aware of your position, your own privileges, and your limitations, you will not be able to truly listen in user research. When we try to build empathy with ourselves and our environment, the first step is to understand the system we operate in. To do this, it helps to take a look at the past, because the structures we find today have developed over time. 

The workplace is not neutral

What does that mean specifically? Broken down: Today's workplace is not neutral. It was built by people who were in power at the time (and often still are today). The workplace was not designed for people who care for their parents alongside their job. Or for people who, due to their physical condition, have to work mainly from home. Or for people who are neurodivergent and need peace and quiet to work. The workplace as we know it today was developed for people who are able and willing to devote themselves fully to their job, no matter the circumstances. 

Retrofitting today's working world to reflect the reality of people in 2025 is no easy task. Structures act like invisible codes. They run in the background and shape what is normal and what is not, who belongs and who does not. So we often don't even notice the biases inherent in them - until we feel disadvantaged. As a result, much of what creates exclusion is not even visible to the majority of society. By playing along with this system, we all contribute to perpetuating these codes. Unconsciously, but nevertheless very effectively.

Check your privilege – for an inclusive work culture

That's why it's essential for an inclusive workplace to question your own privileges – because that's the only way to break down these entrenched structures and bring about positive change. We'd like to give you a few questions to reflect on that you can use to kick-start this process:

• How similar are you to your colleagues and/or managers in terms of appearance, education, social background, etc.? Why?

• What qualifications did you have that enabled you to get your job? What enabled you to obtain these qualifications? Think, for example, of financial resources, social networks, infrastructure, etc. Which people may not have these opportunities and why?

• What do you need to be able to work well? Which of these needs does your workplace meet and why?

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This text is adapted from our upcoming book on Diversity Thinking, in which we help you plan your diversity strategy based on values and creative methods - for a feminist work culture for everyone. Curious? Follow us on LinkedIn to get the latest news.