DEI Diversion: Corporate America Rebrands Without Fully Retreating
A recent report from The Conference Board shows Corporate America is in retreat from leftwing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies — but the truth may be more complicated.
The report relied on corporate disclosure documents “to examine how US public companies are recalibrating public reporting” when it comes to DEI. Researchers found use of the acronym “DEI” fell by 68% from 2024 to 2025 in the major filings from S&P 500 companies.
While that sounds like good news, ESG Dive says the figures reveal that corporations may simply be renaming their DEI initiatives or talking about them less instead of abandoning DEI altogether. The outlet writes:
While firms scaled back DEI language and commitments, 79% percent of S&P 500 firms disclosed board committee oversight of DEI, up from 72%, according to the report. For Russell 3000 companies, this figure jumped from 48.4% to 86.8%. Rather than simply abandoning DEI, this suggests that companies are being more cautious about external messaging while integrating DEI into governance to make it more legally defensible, according to the report.
The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance put it this way:
Corporate public DEI messaging and communications are undergoing a legal- and risk-driven reframing in 2025, with companies reducing the visibility of DEI language while selectively preserving or embedding related goals in ways that are more cautious, controlled, and defensible.
In other words, instead of retreating from DEI and pro-LGBT initiatives, corporations may simply be renaming them.
Many companies established DEI policies to create an equal playing field for racial and ethnic minorities. However, it did not take long for LGBT groups and others to hijack those policies to promote gender-identity politics and other radical ideologies in the workplace.
We have written repeatedly about how DEI initiatives have been used to promote critical race theory and other leftwing ideologies — however, Americans have pushed back against these initiatives.
Following boycotts and backlash, companies like Walmart, Target, Toyota, John Deere, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, Harley Davidson, and others rolled back their pro-LGBT diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
More generally, in 2023 Bud Light managed to singlehandedly overthrow itself as the number-one beer in America after sending transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney a novelty can of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s picture on it. Since then, Target quietly has replaced its LGBT pride merchandise, and entertainment giants like Pixar and Disney have removed pro-LGBT elements from their storylines.
It’s obvious that corporate DEI initiatives and pro-LGBT pandering are deeply out-of-step with everyday Americans. These are flawed ideologies that do not ensure individuals are valued, heard, or included. Employees who hold biblical views of marriage or gender risk losing their jobs in workplaces that have adopted DEI policies. None of that is good for our economy or our country.
Instead of renaming these programs, Corporate America should continue to retreat from DEI altogether, plain and simple.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
