The Athens employers Flagpole called employ 20,638 people in Athens. Employers include two chicken processing companies as well as manufacturers of clocks, motors and transformers. Dawn Bennett-Alexander, a UGA specialist on employment law and a corporate diversity consultant, says she's not surprised that Athens employers are a little behind. At the same time, it's still Athens. It's got a lot of the same attributes small towns do.
People tend to be provincial.
Just to look good, they'll implement certain things. In a town like Chapel Hill, the granting of health benefits to domestic partners has meant extending coverage to only a handful of people. But Bennett-Alexander and other advocates see the extension of such benefits as important symbolically, and thus an important bragging point for cities marketing themselves to more desirable industries. If I were moving to a community, that would speak volumes to me about how responsible they are to the people they serve. Bennett-Alexander cites Cobb County's disastrous experience with the International Olympic Committee as proof that on the global stage, a commitment to diversity makes good marketing sense.