Will organisations ‘fall prey’ to culture war-based business changes?

International Women’s Day (IWD) last Saturday (8 March) offers conversation starters about the continued workplace changes pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

HR Leader recently spoke to Dionne Woo, chief people officer at SiteMinder, and Neha Madhok, racial justice advocate and former co-founder and CEO at Democracy in Colour, about International Women’s Day.

Through this, discussions were raised around both gender equality and DEI, touching on how businesses should approach these initiatives and policies that are becoming more and more contentious from sociopolitical tensions. Navigating this in 2025 is proving to be a challenge for business and HR leaders.

“Marching forward for gender equality doesn’t happen without understanding and addressing the barriers to success that may exist in a team, throughout a business, or at the systemic level in an industry,” said Woo.

“Inclusive environments enable genuine diversity of thought across the organisation by removing any barriers holding back individuals from thriving and in their roles.

“Representation at all levels of an organisation is also important and businesses need to recognise that the path to achieving equal representation can be long, but is absolutely worth it.”

Despite some of the backlash that diversity policies have been facing in Australia and across the globe, Woo said that research supports diversity initiatives and the positive impact it can have on business.

“Research shows that diverse teams have significant and positive impacts on innovation, company culture, employee engagement and, of course, the bottom line. And, if there is not diverse representation at the top – on the organisation’s Board and at the executive level – this is a sign that there are barriers to success and career progression,” said Woo.

“These indicators are worth analysing and acting on if we want the next generation to experience fairer opportunities for all women and girls.”

Madhok touched on what IWD should represent for Australian businesses.

“Marching Forward in 2025 means recognising that the fight for gender equality is about justice, not just about getting women into leadership. It’s about dismantling the systems that keep power concentrated in the hands of the few – the ones with an interest in keeping it that way,” said Madhok.

“We’ve seen how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts can be quietly rolled back when justice becomes politically inconvenient. If workplace leaders are serious about their commitment to progress, this is the time to double down and protect what we’ve won.”

Madhok said that this year’s upcoming federal election will be a great test for Aussie businesses if they’re going to stand firm on DEI.

“This year’s federal election will be a test: Will corporations fall prey to the far-right’s culture war or will good business sense prevail? It just doesn’t make sense to keep people from diverse audience segments out of your organisation,” said Madhok.

“A variety of perspectives is a strength and makes your product or service stronger. True leadership is about embedding equity into every level of decision-making, not just when it’s easy, and especially when it’s hard. This means pay transparency, anti-racism training, anti-discrimination policies and processes, equity in hiring, and real power sharing, not just tokenism.

“The ‘DEI backlash’ isn’t a reason to slow down; it’s a sign that these initiatives are working, and we need to push even harder to protect our DEI wins.”