Ford Joins Other Major American Companies In Scaling Back DEI Efforts

Ford Motor Co. is the latest leading American company to end its efforts toward diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The American car manufacturer emailed employees announcing the changes to company DEI initiatives, including ending its annual survey from an LGBTQ advocacy group and quotas for minority dealerships and suppliers. Robby Starbuck, a conservative who’s been pressuring corporate America to call off commitments to DEI, climate change, and issues affecting LGBTQ+ people, revealed the private company email to USA Today.

“We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs,” Ford CEO Jim Farley wrote in the email. “The external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve.”

Following the announcement, Ford joins a growing list of large American companies scaling back DEI efforts, including Lowes, Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, and Jack Daniel’s whiskey maker Brown-Forman. Other changes Ford made to its DEI programs include opening its employee resource groups to all workers, not just select minority groups.

While Starbuck calls the announcement a “great start,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said the organization “could not be more disappointed to see Ford Motor Co. shirking its responsibility to its employees, consumers, and shareholders.”

“By failing to support women leaders, employees of color, and LGBTQ+ employees, Ford Motor Co. is abandoning its financial duty to recruit and keep top talent from across the full talent pool,” Robinson said in a statement. “In making their purchasing decisions, consumers should take note that Ford Motor Company has abandoned its commitment to our communities.”

Companies have been scaling back DEI efforts in response to conservative activists attacking the private sector following a 2023 Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action at the college level.

“We’re now forcing multibillion-dollar organizations to change their policies without even posting just from fear they have of being the next company that we expose,” Starbuck wrote on X.

Big news: We were in the middle of investigating woke policies @Ford but this morning Ford confirmed to me that they’re making changes.

Here are the changes:

• Ending participation in the @HRC’s woke Corporate Equality Index social credit system.

• It sounds like there will… pic.twitter.com/LAIxUgNicV
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 28, 2024

The push to reverse DEI comes despite a recent study by the Global Black Economic Forum and the Korn Ferry Institute that found that fostering diverse teams and creating inclusive workplaces enhances innovation and supports other business objectives.

“Opponents of DEI seek to dismantle initiatives because they work,” Andrea Abrams, executive director of Defending American Values Coalition said in a statement.

“Rather than bowing to the pressures of anti-DEI activists, companies should speak up about the economic successes of DEI and stand firm in their support for programs that increase the talent pool and expand the bottom line.”