‘DEI’ as a dirty word: Companies are saying a lot less about diversity and equity in public filings

The DEI as a dirty word trend continues. A new report from The Conference Board shows a sharp decline in usage of the words “diversity,” “racial,” “gender,” or “DEI” in corporate filings of the largest U.S. public companies.

More than a third of S&P 100 companies have stopped using the term “equity” altogether. And use of “DEI” declined 68% from 2024 to 2025 in the major filings of S&P 500 companies, according to the report. The study was based on an analysis of public companies’ 2025 Form 10-Ks, the legally required annual reports that provide a summary of a company’s financial performance and business operations.

It’s not surprising at a time when many large companies have announced rollbacks of their DEI programs in response to President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders. I’ve heard from many C-Suite executives who’ve wondered whether keeping these initiatives—many enacted in response to the murder of George Floyd and the nationwide racial reckoning that followed in 2020—opened them up to heightened legal risk.

Even if some companies are continuing their diversity and equity efforts, they’re less likely to trumpet that on their 10-K form, said Ani Huang, senior executive vice president of the HR Policy Association, a nonprofit public policy organization. “If in the current environment, it’s something that could actually wind up harming the company or putting a target on their back or triggering political consequences that are not in line with what the actual goal is, they just won’t use that disclosure,” she explained.

Reports of workforce demographic data, which many U.S. public companies have voluntarily disclosed in recent years, have also fallen. The share of companies disclosing data on women in management dropped by 16%, and those reporting the overall share of women in their workforce fell by 14%.

Board diversity disclosure fared similarly. Companies choosing to disclose the gender of individual board directors declined by 22%, while those disclosing the race or ethnicity of individual board directors declined by 20%, according to the report.

But Huang says that just because companies are no longer disclosing diversity data doesn’t mean they’ve decided to abandon DEI goals entirely. “I think that companies remain focused on building these inclusive, high-performing workplaces,” she said. “It has nothing to do with politics. It’s how they find and keep the best talent, and they’re going to continue to do that. They’re focused on meritocracy.”

But, she adds, “In today’s environment, we’ve just found the most effective way to continue this work on a legal basis is by doing it quietly.”

Kristin Stoller
Editorial Director, Fortune Live Media
kristin.stoller@fortune.com

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