The DEI Battle Just Got Harder: How Do We Respond? (10th February 2025)
How we talk about DEI needs to change.
We can’t ignore the culture shift that’s happening right now…
We’re only a few weeks into the new US presidency and witnessing the horrific weaponisation of disability in what is actually critical decision failure.
This isn’t going to change soon; and if anything, I’m noticing that it’s creeping its way through to the U.K.
This isn't about erasing DEI, if anything we need to make sure that wording is championed even more! Celebrate and highlight the companies doing it right and doing it well even more.
But if you find yourself shouting into a void, exhausting yourself trying to defend those phrases- and therefore defending the very right to exist as a human being- I'd have a rethink about what that wording means to your organisation, and what you're fighting for.
Challenge this if you feel safe to do so. Champion this if your job is secure. If you have senior buy in, if you have the mental health support.
But if you’re fighting against someone who has a core belief that disabled people, black people, immigrants, women and trans people shouldn’t exist, I personally don’t think going through the process of explaining why DEI matters over and over again is going to have them suddenly change their mind.
Instead I think we need to look for other ways to bring in equity in the workplace too. I think we need to use new language, or co-opt their language!
I’ve always been a firm believer that the DEI conversation needs to belong to operations, not HR. That we need to bring in productivity metrics alongside culture because that’s what most major employers *actually* measure.
I think we need to talk about hiring based on merit as actively hiring diversely, because if you’re only ever hiring white people then your interview metrics literally cannot be based on merit.
Our uphill battle just got so, so much steeper. And because it’s happening in the USA, it’s giving people permission around the world to vocalise the same thoughts.
For these people, they aren’t new ideas… they’ve just finally got the confidence to express them without repercussions.
In Other News!
Founder of Unhidden, Victoria Jenkins, partnered with Primark and launched an adaptive fashion collection. This is amazing progress to having more adaptive and affordable clothes on the high street.
Ellie Simmonds will present a new documentary later this year, ‘Ellie Simmonds: Will I have Children?’, a deeply personal documentary exploring the complex decisions expectant parents face when learning their child may be born with a disability whilst questioning the assumption that life with a disability is one of limitation.
Rachael x