Women in the workforce as DEI policies change in corporate America

Saturday is International Women’s Day, a day for celebrating the achievements of women and reflecting on what society should do next to further promote equality.

It’s an interesting time to talk about this, given the number of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies that are eroding in corporations across America.

Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, McDonald’s, Pepsi, John Deere, and Paramount have all changed or dropped their DEI policies.

The consulting firm McKinsey, which researches trends about women in corporate America, wrote in its 2024 report that debiasing practices “tend to make the greatest strides in advancing women.”

People have fought for decades to improve the standing of women in the workplace, long before the term Diversity, Equity and Inclusion became a common term in corner offices.

International Women’s Day, for example, was first observed in 1913.

Still, experts argue that DEI policies have lifted the decades of work to advance equality into new focus.

“DEI has given wind behind the wings of CEOs and law enforcement chiefs, etcetera, who are committed, dedicated to building an inclusive workforce,” said Dr. Carol Geffner, Global Management Consultant at Geffner Group and former University of Southern California professor of Practice of Governance, Management and Policy.  

Geffner argues that dismantling modern DEI policies will hurt women in corporate culture, especially in heavily male-centric organizations. She believes organizations need to have policies and processes in place to address systemic barriers.

“What gets measured gets managed, that’s the adage in management theory,” said Geffner. “So, if you take the spotlight off of accountability, then it’s very easy for women to not be advanced into positions, and there’s no voice for it.”

Numerous companies, including ones that have come under recent scrutiny, do measure the makeup of their workforce. 

Walmart, which scaled back its work around DEI after the Supreme Court ruled on affirmative action, measures DEI metrics, except under a different name: “Belonging.”

The company rebranded its Chief Diversity Officer to the Chief Belonging Officer.

In Walmart’s 2024 mid-year “Belonging Report,” the company stated that 45 percent of the company’s management were women.

Walmart is one of the companies that was boycotted in late February by a grassroots group “The People’s Union” as part of an economic blackout.

Meantime, Costco has seen a lot of support after shareholders rejected a proposal to analyze the risk of their DEI programs.

In 2024, Costco reported that it made up 37 percent of management, which is eight percent lower than Walmart’s women-in-management makeup.

The statistics point to the greater fragility and underrepresentation of women in leadership.

Of the 281 participating organizations studied in McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report, for every 100 men promoted to manager, 81 women were promoted.

“Because of the ‘broken rung’ in the corporate ladder, men significantly outnumber women at the manager level, making it incredibly difficult for companies to support sustained progress at more senior levels,” the report said.

So how do companies and women fill that gap?

“On an individual level, women need to continue learning some of the lessons that I teach and many of my peers teach, and that is learning to speak up for yourself, learning that you don’t have to wait to have every qualification before you apply for a job,” said Geffner. “Stretch roles are really critical. If you want to grow and develop, take jobs that are just a tad beyond what you’re already doing.”

As we look ahead to International Women’s Day, there is plenty of progress to celebrate, and more work to be done. 

When we measure where we are against how far we’ve come, we can better decide what to do next.