A strong argument for diversity in the
workforce, particularly the 
professional workforce, was made in
today's Wall Street Journal in an article about the way Philip Morris
has succeeded in reducing lung cancer lawsuits and the amount of
damages awarded in lawsuits.
The lead counsel for Philip Morris, a few years back, was about to address a group of 100 of his litigation lawyers when he realized that they were all white males. I know, the article doesn't mention it, they were from the early 20th century “upper crust” which Philip Morris originally thought would be politically helpful in local venues. Boy, was Philip Morris wrong and they got to stew in their bigoted class idiocy with tens of billions in legal penalties.
New lawyers were hired and put in
charge of major cases. Just one of the new lawyers changed the whole
direction of lung cancer lawsuits against Philip Morris. First she
invented a new series of questions to measure prejudice against
cigarette companies and got judges
to use the questions to disqualify
jurors. Second she convinced judges to hold court from 8:30am to 1pm
so working people could be on juries. Working people are much less
antagonistic to corporations than the unemployed and retired who sit
on most juries.
Voila ... diversity and meritocracy, two of the four tent poles of commerce, are victorious in the real world.