American retail giant Walmart is pulling back on its diversity and inclusion efforts following pressure from conservatives.
It’s the latest big business in the United States to do so, promising to stop using the term ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” in its communications and running reviews of its support for inclusion programs.
The shift follows pressure from activist Robbhy Starbuck, an anti-DEI campaigner who threatened Walmart with a boycott campaign, that would pull on his 700,000 followers on X.
Walmart has bowed to the pressure, with the supermarket giant confirming it had had conversations with Starbuck.
On the other side of the world, Australian mining company Rio Tinto has committed to “stay the course” on long-term cultural reform, despite its latest internal findings revealing a “backlash” against diversity efforts, alongside troubling reports of sexual assault, bullying and little to no improvement in terms of employees experiencing sexual harassment and racism.
The internal report based on a survey of more than 12,000 employees globally found that eight employees said they had experienced actual or attempted sexual assault or rape this year, up from five people sharing such an experience in 2021.
There were 32 reports of workers saying they had experienced pressure or requests for sex or sexual acts, down from 37 in the previous report. Seven per cent of survey respondents reported experiencing sexual harassment, including 16 per cent of women and four per cent of men.
There has also been a concerning increase in women experiencing bullying, up from 36 per cent in 2021 to 50 per cent in 2024.
CEO for Rio Tinto Australia, Kellie Parker, acknowledged that the survey of more than 11,600 staff members has uncovered “a backlash” against diversity programs.
Lawyer and former Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick undertook the review. She, too, said on the findings that “specific resistance towards programs and strategies targeted at women and other marginalised groups such as leadership programs” had been uncovered.
Rio Tinto has seen its workforce grow from being 18.4 per cent female in 2019 to 25 per cent female in 2024. Women reported being seen as “diversity hires”, with one commenting that diversity efforts are not resulting in inclusion. “The boys all go out for drinks, and I’m not invited. The boys message separately in a group chat during team meetings.”
There’s clearly more work to do to better understand the ‘why’ behind such a backlash, as well as the ‘why’ behind individuals feeling they are being unfairly sidelined in diversity efforts and perceive it to be zero sum game.
But pulling out of diversity efforts altogether, as Walmart has done in response to a conservative influencer, is cowardly, even with a new president-elect promising to ban DEI initiatives in workplaces and educational institutions on the first day of his administration.
An alternative strategy could have been to communicate the opportunities for everyone in diversity better and continuously striving for stronger workplace cultures.
This was something the CEO of Rio Tinto’s iron ore division. Simon Trott, acknowledged following the release of the company’s internal review. “We need to really be articulating the why, why is this important and why we want to drive this change,” he told reporters.
“We’ve got to make sure that we take everyone with us and all change takes time. All changes sometimes also create resistance in some areas.”
Rio Tinto has said they will focus on improving training for managers.
Broderick also recommended this in her report to Rio, noting a need to better communicate “why differential treatment is necessary to level the playing field.”
Globally, Rio Tinto’s CEO Jakob Stausholm has committed to “stay the course”.
He apologised to the victims of sexual assault, harassment and bullying, declaring he was “greatly troubled” by such reports.
But he did express that he believes positive things are happening.
“The review also shows that while progress is being made, achieving the sustained change we want to see in our culture will require ongoing focus and effort,” he said in a statement.
“My message today is that we will stay the course.”