Almost four years after George Floyd’s murder sparked corporate America’s racial reckoning, diversity progress has stagnated — in footwear and the broader corporate world. And mentions of DEI have begun to fade from public conversation as well.
In an analysis of earnings call transcripts from 2022, S&P Global Market Intelligence found that publicly traded companies are speaking less and less about diversity and inclusion. Since 2020, mentions of “diversity” and “inclusion” on S&P 500 earnings calls have been on a downward trend, with mentions for the 2023 fiscal year at the lowest level since 2012.
Meanwhile, a charged political climate has given way to criticism of corporate DEI programs, which has been buoyed by the Supreme Court’s controversial decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions.
According to data from the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, the number of pro-DEI shareholder proposals declined in 2023. Meanwhile, anti-DEI proposals increased that same year.
In the footwear industry, CEOs have become more reluctant to take a stand on diversity issues since 2020. And widespread cost-cutting means many existing DEI programs are on the chopping block. Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officers, a hot hire in 2020, have also faced challenges in a role marked by short tenures and an often undefined place in an organization.
“People who were doing the work before 2020 are continuing to do that work. Some of the companies who jumped on the bandwagon are backtracking. You see some regression,” Brandice Daniel, CEO and founder, Harlem’s Fashion Row, told Footwear News in January regarding the state of DEI efforts in the industry. “When you look at the retailers who created [initiatives to bring in Black designers], most of them didn’t create sustainable programs that would ensure their success. It’s going to take something else to happen to bring this issue back into the forefront.”
In addition to the diversity data, S&P Global Market Intelligence also found that growth in women’s representation across all senior leadership positions in the U.S. plunged to 0.5 percent in 2023, the lowest rate in over a decade compared to the 1.2 percent average. Within C-suite roles, female representation regressed for the first time since 2005, with women holding just 11.8 percent of C-suite roles in 2023, down from 12.2 percent in 2022.
That data mirrors a similarly concerning trend in the footwear industry, which has stalled in its diversity and gender parity efforts in recent months. Despite progress at some companies such as Foot Locker, Red Wing Shoe Co. and Pacsun, the industry is still largely run by men. And some recent departing female chief executive officers — like Under Armour’s Stephanie Linnartz — have been replaced by men.
“A waning focus on diversity initiatives suggests a potential inflection point and calls our previous gender parity estimates into question,” read the study.
