During which time period was the focus on assimilating people of color and women into the corporate setting?

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The early 1980s is the period when the focus was on assimilating people of color and women into the corporate setting. During this time, many organizations aimed to bring more women and minority individuals into the workforce and help them fit into the existing corporate culture through training, mentoring, and clear advancement paths. The goal was often to align new employees with the established norms and practices of the organization so they could succeed within the current structure.

Later decades shifted toward diversity and inclusion as ends in themselves—creating cultures that value different backgrounds and actively redesigning policies and practices to be more welcoming and equitable. That broader, more transformative approach becomes more prominent in the mid-1990s and beyond, whereas the early 1980s is the period most associated with assimilating new groups into the prevailing corporate framework.