Confronting the backlash against diversity and inclusion

Lisa Annese in a red dress and black jacket, in front of a grey background.Diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts are at a crossroads. While progress is being made in many areas, a growing trend of resistance and backlash threatens to undermine hard-won gains.

Often dismissed as resistance to “woke culture”, the rising backlash against D&I represents a deep-seated sense of disillusionment, distrust, and, crucially, misunderstanding. We are seeing it play out internationally, as major US organisations back away from DEI initiatives and in Australia with Rio Tinto reporting resistance to its gender equity efforts.

Diversity Council Australia’s (DCA) 2023-2024 Inclusion@Work Index reveals opposition to D&I efforts has doubled since 2017. Though still the minority, 7% of workers now oppose D&I action.

While it would be easy to chalk up this rising rancour against D&I as an export of sentiment from the US election campaign, emerging data shows that this resistance stems from far more wicked problems. Problems that are, ironically, a product of the very thing D&I efforts seek to address – inequality.

Research shows that this sentiment is most strongly held among very specific demographics that expose deep cracks in our social and economic systems. However misguided this backlash may be, it comes from valid concerns and must be approached from a place of understanding and empathy.

For D&I to succeed, we must address these complexities, ensuring that inclusion efforts resonate with everyone – not just those who are traditionally perceived to benefit from them.

Economic inequality, disillusionment and discontent

As rising housing prices push the dream of home ownership further out of reach for many and the cost of living continues to grow, major global conflicts, international political uncertainty and the looming threat of climate change are adding pressure to social cohesion and causing widespread disillusionment and discontent.

This year, more than 40% of Australians reported that they were ‘poor’, struggling to pay bills or ‘just getting along’ financially. Regardless of your political leaning, it is difficult to hold patience for the slow crawl of political process while you’re struggling to put food on the table and pay your mortgage.

Australia’s growing wealth gap exacerbates feelings of exclusion for many, particularly those in industries disrupted by globalisation, technological change, and economic restructuring. Once-secure jobs in manufacturing and trades have been replaced with more precarious work, leaving many without clear pathways to economic security.

This is not just an economic problem – it is a cultural one. For generations, traditional notions of masculinity were tied to being the family breadwinner. As these roles erode, some men are increasingly perceiving efforts to advance women, migrants, and other marginalised groups as a threat to their already uncertain position.

Backlash is resistance in its most blatant form. It is usually the cumulation of other forms of subtler and more pervasive institutional and organisational resistance, for example committing to a policy but providing inadequate resourcing, or senior leaders distancing themselves from an organisation’s efforts to improve gender equity.

Plan International’s Gender Compass report revealed that 17% of Australians believe gender equality efforts have gone too far and are now negatively impacting men. Unsurprisingly, this cohort is mostly made up of older men with Tafe or other vocational training as their highest level of education. By contrast, those most likely to support gender equality efforts are typically young women. Supporters are also more likely to have a university education and live in a major city.

However, while the majority of those who reject gender equality efforts are men over the age of 50, the second-highest cohort sits in the 16-29 age bracket. DCA’s 2023-2024 Inclusion@Work Index supports this finding, showing that while men overall have increased their support for D&I efforts, support actually decreased by nearly 10% among men under the age of 30.

Economic inequality is still a gendered issue

Despite the pushback against gender equity, it cannot be ignored that economic inequality disproportionately affects women and exacerbates gender inequality.

Women, particularly single mothers, older women, women with disability, migrants and First Nations women, remain overrepresented in low-paid, insecure work and face countless systemic barriers to career success. On average, an Australian woman earns $1 million less than an Australian man across her career. These disparities are compounded by the unequal distribution of unpaid care work, and safety issues faced by women both at home and in the workplace, which further limit women’s economic opportunities.

Gender-based violence, which is overwhelmingly perpetrated against women by men, is at epidemic levels in Australia. We know that violence against women is both a symptom and a cause of gender inequality, and a barrier to women’s economic opportunities.

Inequality affects women at all levels. Data from Chief Executive Women (CEW) shows men still account for 91% of CEO positions at Australia’s top companies and only one in eight CEO appointments in 2024 were women, a figure which has actually gotten worse compared with one in four in 2023.

Yet, one-third of Australian men still believe gender inequality doesn’t exist. Even of the men who do support gender diversity efforts, 21% said males were being discriminated against and 22% said gender equity caused division and resentment among employees.

Part of engaging everyone, particularly younger men, with workplace D&I is shifting the pervasive misconception that equity efforts only benefit the minority at the expense of the majority. In reality, D&I efforts benefit everyone. In fact, used effectively, workplace D&I is actually one of the best solutions to economic inequality we’ve got.

What’s in it for men?

Countless studies show that people in more diverse and inclusive workplaces not only feel better, they also often perform better. And that includes everyone – not just people from marginalised groups. DCA’s Inclusion@Work Index showed that men working in organisations taking D&I action are twice as likely to be satisfied with their job. They’re also significantly more likely to feel they have the same opportunities as anyone else and that work has a positive impact on their mental health.

That last point about mental health is important. Men account for 75% of deaths by suicide in Australia and 71% of men who live with a mental health condition listed gender stereotypes as a barrier to seeking help. Additionally, loneliness and limited access to mental health services in rural and remote areas exacerbate these issues, particularly among First Nations men, who face significantly higher rates of mental health concerns and suicide.

Workplace D&I initiatives can play a transformative role in improving men’s mental health by challenging harmful stereotypes about masculinity and creating workplace cultures that value emotional wellbeing. Inclusive environments encourage healthier expressions of emotions, collaborative relationships, and access to supportive networks, which are crucial for reducing the stigma around mental health and promoting help-seeking behaviour.

More inclusive workplaces also help to ease economic inequality and uncertainty by making accessing stable employment fairer for everyone, particularly those from lower socio-economic demographics. We know that traditional hiring methods often favour candidates from privileged backgrounds due to biases associated with education, work history, or networking opportunities. Inclusive recruitment helps identify talent outside conventional pools, levelling the playing field by prioritising skills and potential over pedigree. These processes don’t just benefit people from marginalised communities, they benefit everyone.

The economic benefits also extend to organisations, with countless studies showing inclusive workplaces are significantly more innovative and profitable than workplaces with lower levels of inclusion.

Lessons from the US

The rise in anti-D&I sentiment is not new. The 2016 US presidential election, which brought Donald Trump to power, was fuelled in large part by disaffected white working-class men. These voters, concentrated in regions devastated by industrial decline, rallied behind Trump’s rhetoric, which framed diversity and inclusion as elitist projects that ignored their struggles.

A similar dynamic played out during this year’s US election campaign, with the rise of populism and further exploitation of economic and class anxieties to meet political ends. Campaigners painted diversity efforts as favouritism toward women and minorities, designed to sew division instead of solidarity. The parallels to Australia are clear: without addressing the intersection of social class, gender, and economic inequality, D&I risks being perceived as exclusionary rather than inclusive.

We must acknowledge disenfranchisement without undermining progress by approaching those who reject inclusion and equity efforts with radical empathy and bringing them along on the journey. With the right approach, we can redirect this misplaced opposition and focus on structural reforms that target the root causes of inequality and promote positive change.

To address this backlash, we must confront its underlying causes: economic inequality, class divisions, and cultural dislocation. Lessons from the US should be seen as instructive – economic and cultural anxieties, if unaddressed, can fracture social cohesion and erode support for inclusion. But by integrating social class and economic justice into the D&I agenda, we can build a shared vision of equity – one that uplifts everyone, regardless of gender, race, disability status, sexual identity or class.

Perhaps it’s time we reframe the dialogue around D&I work and shine a light on the wide-ranging benefits. Rather than shy away from D&I, we must double down on our commitment to creating workplaces that are more inclusive, safer and equitable for everyone. Lifting one group does not mean pushing another down – it means creating opportunities for all.

Lisa Annese is the former CEO of Diversity Council Australia. This opinion piece was originally published in the Australian on Thursday 2 January 2025.