Which US companies are pulling back on diversity initiatives?
A growing number of prominent companies have scaled back or set aside the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that much of corporate America endorsed following the protests that accompanied the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in 2020.
The changes have come in response to a campaign by conservative activists to target workplace programs in the courts and social media, and more recently, President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at upending DEI policies in both the federal government and private sector.
DEI policies typically are intended to root out systemic barriers to the advancement of historically marginalized groups in certain fields or roles. Critics argue that some education, government and business programs are discriminatory because they single out participants based on factors such as race, gender and sexual orientation. They have targeted corporate sponsorships, employee-led affinity groups, programs aimed at steering contracts to minority or women-owned businesses, and goals that some companies established for increasing minority representation in leadership ranks.
While hiring or promotion decisions based on race or gender is illegal under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in most circumstances, companies say they are not doing that. Instead, they say they aspire to diversify their workforce over time through policies like widening candidate pools for job openings.
These are some of the companies that have retreated from DEI:
Goldman Sachs
Investment firm Goldman Sachs confirmed that it was dropping a requirement that forced IPO clients to include women and members of minority groups on their board of directors.
“As a result of legal developments related to board diversity requirements, we ended our formal board diversity policy,” said a Goldman Sachs spokesman in an email to The Associated Press. “We continue to believe that successful boards benefit from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and we will encourage them to take this approach.”
Goldman Sachs said that it will still have a placement service that connects its clients with diverse candidates to serve on their boards.
Google rescinded a goal it had set in 2020 to increase representation of underrepresented groups among the company’s leadership team by 30% within five years. In a memo to employees, the company also said it was considering other changes in response to Trump’s executive order aimed at prohibiting federal contractors from conducting DEI practices that constitute “illegal discrimination.”
Google’s parent company Alphabet also signaled things were changing in its annual 10-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The report dropped a boilerplate sentence it has used since 2020 declaring that the company is “committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.”
Target
The retailer said that changes to its “Belonging at the Bullseye” strategy would include ending a program it established to help Black employees build meaningful careers, improve the experience of Black shoppers and to promote Black-owned businesses following Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, where Target has its headquarters.
Target, which operates nearly 2,000 stores nationwide and employs more than 400,000 people, said it also would conclude the diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, goals it previously set in three-year cycles.
The goals included hiring and promoting more women and members of racial minority groups, and recruiting more diverse suppliers, including businesses owned by people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, veterans and people with disabilities.
Target also will no longer participate in surveys designed to gauge the effectiveness of its actions, including an annual index compiled by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ+ rights organization. Target also said it would further evaluate corporate partnerships to ensure they’re connected directly to business objectives, but declined to share details.
Meta Platforms
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram said it was getting rid of its diversity, equity and inclusion program, which featured policies for hiring, training and picking vendors.
Like other companies that announced similar changes before Meta, the social media giant said it had been reviewing the program since the Supreme Court’s July 2023 ruling upending affirmative action in higher education.
Citing an internal memo sent to employees, news website Axios reported the Menlo Park, California-based tech giant said it would no longer have a team focused on diversity and inclusion and will instead “focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background.” The change means the company will also end its “diverse slate approach” to hiring, which involved considering a diverse pool of candidates for every open position.
Amazon
Amazon said it was halting some of its DEI programs, although it did not specify which ones. In a Dec. 16 memo to employees, Candi Castleberry, a senior human resources executive, said the company has been “winding down outdated programs and materials, and we’re aiming to complete that by the end of 2024.”
“We also know there will always be individuals or teams who continue to do well-intentioned things that don’t align with our company-wide approach, and we might not always see those right away. But we’ll keep at it,” she wrote.
Rather than “have individual groups build programs,” Castleberry said, Amazon is “focusing on programs with proven outcomes – and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture.”
McDonald’s
Four years after launching a push for more diversity in its ranks, McDonald’s said earlier this month that it is ending some of its diversity practices.
McDonald’s said on Jan. 6 that it will retire specific goals for achieving diversity at senior leadership levels. It also intends to end a program that encourages its suppliers to develop diversity training and to increase the number of minority group members represented within their own leadership ranks.
McDonald’s said it will also pause “external surveys.” The burger giant didn’t elaborate, but several other companies have suspended their participation in an annual survey by the HRC.
In an open letter to employees and franchisees, McDonald’s senior leadership team said it remained committed to inclusion and believes that having a diverse workforce is a competitive advantage.
Walmart
The world’s largest retailer confirmed in November that it would not be renewing a five-year commitment to a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, and that it would stop participating in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
Walmart also said it will better monitor its third-party marketplace to make sure items sold there do not include products aimed at LGBTQ+ minors, including chest binders intended for transgender youth.
Additionally, the company will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts and it won’t be gathering demographic data when determining financing eligibility for those grants.
Ford
CEO Jim Farley sent a memo to the automaker’s employees in August outlining changes to the company’s DEI policies, including a decision to stop taking part in HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
Ford, he wrote, had been looking at its policies for a year. The company doesn’t use hiring quotas or tie compensation to specific diversity goals but remains committed to “fostering a safe and inclusive workplace,” Farley said.
“We will continue to put our effort and resources into taking care of our customers, our team, and our communities versus publicly commenting on the many polarizing issues of the day,” the memo said.
Lowe’s
In August, Lowe’s executive leadership said the company began “reviewing” its programs following the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling and decided to combine its employee resource groups into one umbrella organization. Previously, the company had “individual groups representing diverse sections of our associate population.”
The retailer also will no longer participate in the HRC index, and will stop sponsoring and participating in events, such as festivals and parades, that are outside of its business areas.
Harley-Davidson
In a post on X in August, Harley-Davidson said the company would review all sponsorships and organizations it was affiliated with, and that all would have to be centrally approved. It said the company would focus exclusively on growing the sport of motorcycling and retaining its loyal riding community, in addition to supporting first responders, active military members and veterans.
The motorcycle maker said it would no longer participate in the ranking of workplace equality compiled by the HRC, and that its trainings would be related to the needs of the business and absent of socially motivated content.
Harley-Davidson also said it does not have hiring quotas and would no longer have supplier diversity spending goals.
Brown-Forman
The parent company of Jack Daniels also pulled out from participating in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, among other changes. Its leaders sent an email to employees in August saying the company launched its diversity and inclusion strategy in 2019, but since then “the world has evolved, our business has changed, and the legal and external landscape has shifted dramatically.”
The company said it would remove its quantitative workforce and supplier diversity ambitions, ensure incentives and employee goals were tied to business performance, and review training programs for consistency with a revised strategy.
“Brown-Forman continues to foster an inclusive work environment where everyone is welcomed, respected, and able to bring their best self to work,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Conway said in an email.
John Deere
The farm equipment maker said in July that it would no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, and that it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws.
Moline, Illinois-based John Deere added “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.” But it noted that it would still continue to “track and advance” the diversity of the company.
Tractor Supply
The retailer in June said it was ending an array of corporate diversity and climate efforts, a move that came after weeks of online conservative backlash against the rural retailer.
Tractor Supply said it would be eliminating all of its DEI roles while retiring current DEI goals. The company added that it would “stop sponsoring non-business activities” such as Pride festivals or voting campaigns — and no longer submit data for the HRC index.
The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company, which sells products ranging from farming equipment to pet supplies, also said that it would withdraw from its carbon emission goals to instead “focus on our land and water conservation efforts.”
The National Black Farmers Association called on Tractor Supply’s president and CEO to step down shortly after the company’s announcement.
