I don't have the time right now to respond in a longer form, but I will say this:
I make a big deal out of "lack of diversity" in the field. I, like most people I know who think this is a big deal, do not think that this is exclusively or even primarily due to bias in hiring. I attended a majority black school, so I certainly understand that there are upstream problems.
All of the problems you identified with (2) are still problems of equality around opportunity, not outcome. Identifying that there is a problem, even if it doesn't naturally point to solutions, is still worth doing - because as you can see in this thread, there are plenty of people with a lot invested in denying that there is any problem at all.
I think study (1) is something that companies could implement internally (hopefully in a somewhat unbiased way). That'll at least help address localized bias in the hiring process.
As for (2), I'm aware of the fact that many people around the world don't have access to opportunities to do things that they'd be really good at. I'd really just like to understand the nuances there and how to practically make a difference.
Part of the problem I see is that the conversation around "diversity" (at least in popular media) is very US-centric, when the majority of the human species lives outside of the US. Different countries, states and even cities have very different sets of problems when it comes to lack of access to opportunity.
How would an internal study of (1) work? If I had any hint of data that we’re passing over fully competent candidates while positions go unfilled, I’m going to have already fixed it. I don’t care if the candidates improperly passed over are right or left handed, what their blood type/Rh factor is, what gender/background, or how tall they are.
If we assessed them as competent originally, we’d have made the offer. I don’t know how looking at the same data again will change anything.
(I think there probably are biases in evaluation of competence, but those likely wont show up in a review of the same data that has recorded those biases as fact.)
I make a big deal out of "lack of diversity" in the field. I, like most people I know who think this is a big deal, do not think that this is exclusively or even primarily due to bias in hiring. I attended a majority black school, so I certainly understand that there are upstream problems.
All of the problems you identified with (2) are still problems of equality around opportunity, not outcome. Identifying that there is a problem, even if it doesn't naturally point to solutions, is still worth doing - because as you can see in this thread, there are plenty of people with a lot invested in denying that there is any problem at all.