Despite vocal opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) being one of the hallmarks of US president Donald Trump’s second term in office, he has actually improved his own DEI record.
During his first term, the president’s cabinet included 18 white men, out of 24 positions. This time around, there has been an increase in gender diversity. One-third of Trump’s current cabinet and cabinet-level appointments – eight out of 24 – are women. In fact, he has appointed more women to his cabinet than any Republican president in US history.
The administration also does well when compared to corporate America, where only 8 per cent of chief executive positions in the S&P 500 are held by women.
President Trump appointed Susie Wiles as the first female White House chief of staff, and women as attorney general – Pam Bondi – and director of national intelligence – Tulsi Gabbard, an American Samoan.
Ethnic diversity doesn’t fare quite so well: Trump’s cabinet includes one black personand two of Latin American heritage.
Trump’s aversion to DEI seems to be driven by his embedded value system, which says hard work and merit should be the only metrics for success. In his inaugural address, he promised to “forge a society that is colour blind and merit based”.
Here in Ireland, we are far behind the US in terms of the diversity of ethnicities making up our population. Yet we are seeing racism against immigrants bubble up to the surface of society, with the rise of far-right groups, the Dublin riots in 2023 and the recent unrest in Ballymena. We seem to be experiencing the polarisation that DEI policies were instigated to combat.
In an ideal world, abhorrent attitudes such as racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, ableism and all the rest would be problems that could be solved; in the real world, it seems, the best we can do is continue to figure out ways to do better and be better. DEI policies might not be perfect, but thinking of them as a work in progress might be the way forward.
Valerio Poti is professor of finance and director of the doctoral studies programme in UCD and the UCD Smurfit Centre for Doctoral Research. His most recent research into board diversity and bank performance adds to the vast store of academic evidence supporting the value of diversity. It shows that banks whose boards include female directors enjoy greater success due to being open to lending to growth sectors and innovative industries.
With few senior-level women in banking making up the recruitment pool for boards, recruiting director-level women from other sectors has led to greater diversity of perspectives.
Ultimately, his research reveals that it’s not necessarily the gender diversity that is beneficial, but the diversity of perspectives – which is important as it speaks to the broad scope of DEI.
“Gender diversity is a channel for bringing diversity to a board – diversity of perspectives, diversity of skills, diversity of outlook – and that is what is really beneficial,” says Poti. “The flip side of the argument is that if you switch off the channel, for whatever reason, you’re switching off the channel by which you bring diversity to the board.”
Amid reports of companies pulling back from DEI and watering down policies, Andrew Campbell-Edie, communications and events manager with the Irish Centre for Diversity, says this shift is largely not reflected in the hundreds of organisations the centre works with. The majority of its diversity champions are, he says “holding fast”, although “exposure to a US-based parent business or client base has seen some relabelling or rephrasing of activity and policies”.
The evidence still largely points to the fact that more diverse organisations tend to outperform their competitors.
“Many organisations are taking the opportunity to double down on their investment in this vital area, wise to the valuable competitive edge it gives and to the positive message it gives to their people, clients and service users and other stakeholders,” says Campbell-Edie.
