In the United States, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are organizational frameworks that seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination based on identity or disability.
Diversity refers to the presence of variety within the organizational workforce in characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture, class, veteran status, or religion.
[12] More specifically, equity usually also includes a focus on societal disparities and allocating resources and "decision making authority to groups that have historically been disadvantaged",[13] and taking "into consideration a person's unique circumstances, adjusting treatment accordingly so that the end result is equal.
In 1921 and 1929, executive orders by Presidents Coolidge and Harding established ten-point preference for veterans towards exams and hiring criteria for federal employment.
The Senate floor manager of the bill, Senator Hubert Humphrey, declared that the bill “would prohibit preferential treatment for any particular group” adding “I will eat my hat if this leads to racial quotas.” [28] However, affirmative action in practice would eventually become synonymous with preferences, goals, and quotas as upheld or struck down by Supreme Court decisions such as Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard even though no law had been passed explicitly permitting discrimination in favor of disadvantaged groups.
[citation needed] More recently, concepts have moved beyond discrimination to include diversity, equity, and inclusion as motives for preferring historically underrepresented groups.
[35] After the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the ascent of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, Time magazine stated in 2019 that the DEI industry had "exploded" in size.
[37] In support of DEI hiring during the first term of Donald Trump, the Office of Civil Rights of the Federal Aviation Authority FAA on Thursday, April 11, 2019 announced a pilot program to help prepare people with disabilities for careers in air traffic operations, which identifies specific opportunities for people with targeted disabilities, to facilitate their entry into a more "diverse and inclusive" workforce in a standard public opening for air traffic controller jobs at the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) with the potential to be appointed to a temporary ATCS position at the FAA Academy.
[50][51] In 2024 and 2025, several large American companies scaled back or ended their DEI programs and, in some cases, related policies, such as participation in the Corporate Equality Index.
[52] Generally, these companies said they will continue to foster a safe and inclusive workplace, while ending or reducing policies, initiatives, or programs that specifically take note of protected status.
[53] In this period, other companies reaffirmed their commitment to DEI, including Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Costco[54] and the NFL.
[55] Affirmative action is intended to alleviate under-representation and to promote the opportunities of defined minority groups within a society to give them equal access to that of the majority population.
[62] As of 2022, many academic institutions in the US have also started making commitments to DEI in different ways, including creating documents, programs and appointing dedicated staff members especially in the US.
[70] In early 2024, the Washington Post reported that there is a trend in corporate America to reduce DEI positions and delegate the work to external consultants.
[71][72] The scaling back of DEI initiatives has aligned with a rise in legal challenges and political opposition to systematic endeavors aimed at enhancing racial equity.
[74][75][76] At an aggregate level, a 2013 study found that birth country diversity of the labor force positively impacts a nation's long term productivity and income.
[78][79][80][81] Recent work published in 2024 showed that there is a plausibly causal link (not only a correlation) between workforce gender diversity and financial performance in major firms.
[83] In August 2021, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Nasdaq’s proposed rules requiring listed companies to ensure women and minority directors were on their boards or provide an explanation of why they were not.
[93] In 2023, Actor Richard Dreyfuss stated the Academy Award's diversity and inclusion standards "make me vomit", arguing that art should not be morally legislated.
[94] Several major film directors, who are voting members of the Academy Awards, anonymously expressed their opposition to the new diversity standards to The New York Post, with one describing them as "contrived".
[96] In 2021, Conservative media sources, such as National Review, have been frequent critics of DEI, with contributor George Leff arguing it is authoritarian and anti-meritocratic.
In March 2023, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill with a rider banning the use of state funds for DEI programs in universities and colleges.
[106] In July 2023, the House of Representatives voted to ban all DEI offices and initiatives within the Pentagon and military along partisan lines, with all Democrats and four Republican members also opposing.
[107][108] Political opposition to corporate DEI efforts in the United States, particularly marketing criticized as "woke", have led to calls for boycotts of certain companies by activists and politicians; with notable examples being Disney, Target, Anheuser-Busch,[109] and Chick-fil-A.
[113][114] A June 2024 poll by The Washington Post and Ipsos found that 6 in 10 Americans believed that diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are "a good thing".
[115] A September 2024 poll by the Human Rights Campaign found that 80% of LGBT Americans would boycott a company that repealed its DEI programs and 19% would quit their job if their place of employment did.
For example, University of California, Berkeley eliminated three-quarters of applicants for five faculty positions in the life sciences on the basis of their diversity statements in the hiring cycle of 2018–2019.
[135][136] The 2021 cancelling of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) guest lecture by University of Chicago astrophysicist Dorian Abbot after he criticized DEI programs led to media attention and controversy.
[139] The 2023 suicide of former Toronto principal Richard Bilkszto led to a new wave of controversy surrounding DEI in the workplace and its impact on freedom of expression.
Writing for The Conversation in 2017, college professor Stephen Friedman said that, "Organizations who are serious about DEI must adopt the frame of producing shared value where business and social goods exist side-by-side".[151][relevant?]