2.1  Analysing your online meeting experiences

Using the Social Identity Wheel, think about how your participation in meetings, either as a participant or as chair, is affected by your social identities. Activity 3 will guide your thinking around this.

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The Social Identity Wheel interactive graphic has 11 social identity segments that make up the wheel and the following text is revealed in the centre of the wheel when you click on each of the identities:

  • Gender – woman, man, nonbinary, transgender
  • Sex – female, male, intersex
  • Race – Black, White, bi/multiracial
  • Ethnicity – Arab, Chinese, Irish, Italian, Jewish
  • Sexual orientation – bisexual, gay, heterosexual, lesbian, queer
  • Religious or spiritual affiliation – Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Humanist, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan
  • Physical, emotional, or developmental (dis)ability – e.g. visual impairment, mobility challenges, mental health, neurodiversity, etc.
  • First language – language learned as child such as English, Welsh, Icelandic, German, Spanish, Catalan, Urdu, Mandarin, etc.
  • Social economic class – working, middle, upper
  • Age – childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood, older adult, elderly adult
  • National origin – country of birth or family background
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Activity icon Activity 3  Reflecting on your experiences of social identity in online meetings

Timing: Allow around 10 minutes

Use the box below to write down your reflections on the following questions:

  1. Which of the identities are you most aware of about yourself (if any), when you attend an online meeting?
  2. Which of your identities, do you believe, have the greatest effect on how others perceive you?
  3. Do any of your identities support your participation in online meetings and do any hinder your participation?
  4. Can you think of any challenges that a chair might face in relation to their social identities?
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Answer

There are no right or wrong answers here as this activity is an opportunity for reflection.

  • Thinking about social identity can highlight how some identities are normalised within some contexts. For example, if you are a team member whose first language is not English you may have to work really hard to participate in meetings where everyone else speaks English as their first language. If you are someone who speaks English as a first language, you are less likely to have to think about your language within these contexts.
  • Identities that are normalised can be understood to be privileged. When aspects of your identity are the norm, you are less likely to be confronted by them than when they diverge from the norm.
  • Some identities are visible (race, gender) while others are not visible (some disabilities, religion, sexual orientation).
  • People may choose to conceal some aspects of their identity for fear of discrimination or to avoid negative perceptions. For example, if you are in a same-sex relationship and haven’t shared this with everybody at work, it might be difficult for you to share that you are meeting up with your partner’s family in a discussion about weekend plans at the beginning of a work meeting.
  • You may choose to reveal aspects of your identity in some contexts but not in others. For example, you might tell your family and friends you are neurodivergent but choose not to disclose that at work.
  • Social identities are not static. Some social identities you may hold your whole life, while others may change throughout your life.
  • The social identities that are prominent for you in online meetings are probably similar to the ones that are prominent for you in in-person meetings. However, some might be amplified. For example, a d/Deaf person might find it difficult to follow conversations if they rely on lip reading. Your social class might be more visible in online meetings as your home environment might be on display. If you divide your time between work and caring responsibilities, then your identity as a carer might be more visible if working online from home.
  • The identity of chair confers certain institutional privileges (e.g. the right to open and close meetings). However, the chair may not be privileged in other aspects. Social identities are embedded within wider social and societal power relations and less privileged aspects of identity may coexist with privileged ones.

2  Online meetings and social identities

2.2  When the chair is a woman