Diversity at Raytheon is about inclusiveness — providing an atmosphere where everyone feels valued and empowered to perform at a peak level, regardless of the many ways people are different, including but not limited to age, race, gender, sexual orientation, family history or physical ability.

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The Boston.com - National News
The Boston Globe

Raytheon making push for diversity
Its initiatives are unique to industry
By Bryan Bender and Robert Weisman, Globe Staff
January 16, 2007

WASHINGTON -- When Raytheon software engineer Louise Young and her partner wanted a civil union in 2001, her employer did something unexpected in the conservative defense industry: It temporarily moved her to a division in Sudbury, Vt., so they could realize their dream.

The Waltham-based defense giant considered Young too important an asset to lose. And since then, Raytheon has instituted a series of initiatives to recruit and promote racial minorities, gays, transgendered people, and people with disabilities, making the company the undisputed leader in changing the complexion of an industry long dominated by white men.

The push to change the image of the Pentagon's fifth-largest contractor is considered a matter of survival. Raytheon faces the looming retirement of the baby boom generation and decided it must cast as wide a net as possible for new talent to help develop the technologies of the future. It found that minorities of many backgrounds have steered away from defense contractors on the assumption that they had an unwelcoming work environment and culture.

The number of people who are going to retire in the next five to 10 years is staggering," said Larry Harrington , Raytheon's vice president of internal audit. "If we can create a welcoming culture -- change our DNA so inclusion and respect are part of it -- then we're going to attract and retain more world-class people."

Raytheon is pursuing its diversity initiative with the same rigor and organization with which it has designed Tomahawk cruise missiles and advanced military electronics.

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