I have been watching Life on Mars a t.v. series in which a police officer from 2006 following a hit and run wakes up in the 70’s. Or does he? It could be that he is in a coma as a result of the accident and what he thinks is his new reality is  his damaged brain coping with the trauma.

Set in a Manchester police station it’s part police procedural part historical drama. As such it attempts to recreate the office environment in which casual sexism and racism is the accepted norm. The  concept of leadership/management involves a lot of shouting and personal abuse, sexual orientation is referred to in derogatory language, WPC’s are only fit for typing, filing and making the tea, not detective work. A black colleague has to make racist references at his own expense in order to be accepted and show that, “he can take a joke”. A female detective’s colleagues hang up a Play Boy calendar to see if they can get a reaction and remind her this is a male club.  Sarcasm is the favoured means of communication. It is a very aggressive culture in which physical violence is just below the surface. Team bonding is achieved through bing drinking sessions and of course being the 70’s everyone smokes.

It’s an extreme example but any woman or black person who worked in an office or factory in the 70’s would recognise it. Interestingly most men would deny it was ever that bad.  It’s important to remind ourselves how far we have come and how far we still have to go. It’s easy to dismiss such behaviour as a thing of the past and feel self righteous about our more enlightened attitudes and the progress organisations have made. As a lead for EDI I was always on the lookout for different ways to open out the discussion. I would use clips from popular t.v. shows like Life on Mars to pose the question, have attitudes really changed or is it just behaviour that’s changed?