Organizations are bending to Trump's anti-DEI orders — and women are suffering

The Trump administration has taken a strong stance against DEI, and it's already changing the way women are being perceived by organizations for the worse.   

Twenty-four percent of managers say women are less respected in the workplace since Trump took office — and data from a recent survey from Resume Builder supports their point of view. Since January, around 20% of hiring managers said their company scaled-back DEI initiatives, 22% reported that their organization is now less focused on hiring women, and 26% are less focused on promoting women into leadership roles.

"We continue to turn back the clock on women in our society today," says Stacie Haller, Resume Builder's chief career adviser. "Ever since Roe vs. Wade was overturned, there's been a reversal of all of these strides that women have made in our workforce and society. The Trump administration is now the one setting the pace and giving [leaders] permission to do so." 

Read more: How far will Trump go to erase DEI in the workplace?

In his first days in office, President Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting corporate equity and inclusion efforts, including the "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" and "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity." All of the rulings call for the immediate end to diversity initiatives at federally-funded organizations, but their reach hasn't been limited to those institutions alone.

"It's like we've gone back to when people thought women should stay home and take care of children," Haller says. "Everything we worked so hard to eliminate over the past few decades is being ripped away." 

Resume Builder's survey found, for example, that 20% of employers are less likely to hire an expectant mother, and 3% would be less likely to hire a woman who was recently married.

Fighting for DEI

  
Some organizations are still fighting the anti-DEI rhetoric, however, and it's paying off. Apple, Delta Airlines and Microsoft, all put out public statements affirming their continued investment in diversity efforts, earning them employee and customer support. 

As for companies who have adhered to DEI bans, many are currently facing the repercussions of boycotts, such as Target, which has seen a significant drop in foot traffic since rolling back their DEI messaging and policies, according to Retail Wire, a retail industry insight blog. 

Read more: Why gender diversity still matters amid anti-DEI rhetoric

"It's going to be up to individual organizations to decide what kind of stance they're going to take," Haller says. "And then society will have to play their part and support organizations that still believe in equality in the workplace." 

There are strategies HR departments can deploy to avoid scrutiny and better support their workforce. For example, JPMorgan Chase rebranded their former DEI policy to diversity, opportunity and inclusion (DOI), according to a company memo, in an effort to emphasize pathways for every worker. The change may seem small, but it could make a big difference, according to Haller. 

"We just want an equal shot and we don't want to be dismissed by old bigotry," she says. "It's going to take some time to get back to where we were, because we're still in this downward spiral with this administration, but already we're starting to see  groundswell against some of these policies that people really refuse to swallow."