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Before Trump's anti-DEI campaign, firms were reducing

efforts

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Meta, Walmart ( WMT ) among those scaling back on diversity

initiatives

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Female representation in mid-level management remains low

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Hispanic, Black women still underrepresented

By Richa Naidu and Simon Jessop

LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Some large U.S. companies had

made limited progress in promoting women and were diluting or

abandoning equal opportunity initiatives even before President

Donald Trump launched last week a nationwide campaign to scrap

them, underscoring a shift in corporate priorities.

Shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, Trump issued

sweeping executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity and

inclusion (DEI) programmes in the United States and pressured

the private sector to join the initiative.

Months before, however, big U.S. household names from Meta

to Walmart ( WMT ) had already moved to scrap or

curtail their DEI programmes. Such initiatives are aimed at

addressing longstanding structural racism and sexism by

promoting opportunities in the workplace for women, ethnic

minorities, LGBTQ+ people and other underrepresented groups.

"The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity,

equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing,"

Meta said in a Jan. 10 internal memo reviewed by Reuters.

On Friday, retailer Target ( TGT ) became the latest

high-profile U.S. name to roll back its diversity programmes.

While anti-DEI activists argue these initiatives give people

of minority backgrounds an unfair advantage, advocates fear the

rollbacks will prompt companies to lapse back into inequity.

Reuters reviewed filings made to the U.S. Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission and employment demographic reports for

nine large companies that have scaled back or abandoned their

diversity initiatives last year: Meta, Walmart ( WMT ), Amazon.com ( AMZN ),

Starbucks ( SBUX ), Deere & Co ( DE ), Ford, Boeing ( BA ), McDonald's and Lowe's

Companies.

The documents, which for some companies are limited to just

a couple of years, showed patchy progress.

Only four of those companies managed to increase the

proportion of U.S. female staff since the Covid-19 pandemic.

However the increases have been marginal, including in the key

mid-level managers cohort. Hispanic and Black women remained

largely under-represented, the data showed.

At Amazon.com ( AMZN ), for instance, the proportion of U.S.

mid-level managers that are female has risen from 29.5% in 2020

- when the pandemic erupted - to 32% in 2023, the last year for

which such data is available. At Deere & Co ( DE ), which manufactures

heavy equipment, the same proportion went up from 27.2% to 28.4%

over the same period, according to Reuters calculations on the

data.

Amazon ( AMZN ) did not comment on the data but referred Reuters to

the company's DEI website. The e-commerce player shared an

internal memo sent to employees in December about "winding down

outdated (DEI) programs" but said it still remained "steadfast"

in creating a diverse and inclusive company.

A few companies appeared to have been backsliding.

The proportion of Meta's mid-level officials and managers

who are women, for instance, dropped in 2023 to 29.8% from 34.4%

in 2020. At Ford, the numbers fell to 24.8% in 2023 from 26.7%

in 2021, the oldest available report for the automaker.

Meta and Ford managed, however, to improve the proportion of

female top executives to 36.3% from 35.3% and to 27.4% from

25.2% respectively over the periods surveyed, the data review

shows.

At the nine companies surveyed, Hispanic and Black women, on

average, each represented just around 5% of mid-level managers

in the United States in 2023.

At Ford, only 1.1% of mid-level officials and managers

that year were Hispanic women and 8.8% were Black women, while

at Deere & Co ( DE ) 1.1% of its mid-level managers were Black women

and 1% Hispanic, Reuters calculations on available data show.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data show Black people accounted

in 2023 for 13% of the U.S. labour force, while people of

Hispanic or Latino ethnicity make up 19%.

"PIPELINE, PIPELINE, PIPELINE"

Experts say fostering diversity in middle management is

vital because that is where the pathways for male and female

workers often start to diverge.

"It's why we're always talking about pipeline, pipeline,

pipeline," said Laura Sanderson, Co-Head of Europe, Middle East

& India at executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.

"It's not enough to just have women on your executive

committee. You need them in the right roles to be preparing

them."

Women made up 39% of managerial roles across corporate

America in 2024, 40% in 2023 and 38% in 2020, according to data

from consulting firm McKinsey.

Meta, which confirmed to Reuters it is scaling back its DEI

programmes, said equal opportunity data for 2022 and 2023 was

affected by layoffs, without elaborating.

Approached by Reuters multiple times for this story, Lowe's

did not respond. Boeing ( BA ) referred to DEI data on its website but

did not offer additional comment. Deere & Co ( DE ) acknowledged the

request to comment but did not do so. Starbucks ( SBUX ) provided

employment demographic data but did not comment on Reuters'

calculations. Walmart ( WMT ) confirmed the numbers but did not

elaborate on them.

Ford told Reuters the document it uploaded to its website

for 2021 was only based on that year's filing to the Equal

Employment Opportunity Commission but was not the filing itself.

The company did not provide its actual 2021 filing.

McDonald's said the employment filings reviewed by Reuters

represented a small portion of its U.S. workforce because they

did not include franchise locations.

CHANGING LANDSCAPE

Gender diversity experts say the departure from equal

opportunity initiatives marks a shift in U.S. boardroom

attitudes after many had ramped up DEI efforts in the aftermath

of the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a

former Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for about

nine minutes.

About three years prior, the '#MeToo' movement had gained

global prominence, prompting conversations about women's issues

in the workplace and scrutiny around inequity and harassment.

Yet, the last couple of years have seen a backlash against

equal opportunity initiatives in some sections of American

society. In June 2023, the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme

Court ruled against affirmative action in university admissions.

The verdict sparked a wave of lawsuits by conservative groups

against DEI programmes in the workplace.

"In a shift from recent years, (companies) are no longer

willing to put their head above the parapet," said Carlota

Esguevillas, head of responsible investment at EdenTree

Investment Management, a sustainable investment manager based in

Britain.

According to McKinsey, 78% of North American companies

polled in an annual survey last year said gender diversity was a

corporate priority, down from 88% in 2017.

"Companies are saying diversity is no longer a top

priority," said Alexis Krivkovich, a senior partner at McKinsey,

which has for a decade written a yearly report on corporate

women in North America. "It's the first time we've seen a

material step back, and that really concerns me."

Meanwhile, the gap between men and women is closing at a

snail's pace: for every 100 men promoted to manager in 2024, 81

women were promoted, against 79 in 2018.

Despite the changing landscape, some large companies have

not given up on their DEI initiatives. Apple ( AAPL ), whose filings show

the proportion of female mid-level managers rose to 29.8% in

2023 from 28% in 2020, recommended earlier in January its

investors vote against a proposal from the conservative National

Center for Public Policy to abolish the tech company's diversity

programmes.

Last week, Costco shareholders overwhelmingly rejected an

anti-DEI measure.