Donald Trump’s move to abolish diversity policies has been a “major backward step” for gender equality in the workplace and threatens to drag down economic growth in the US and globally, women’s campaigner Mariella Frostrup has warned.
The broadcaster said the US president’s decision to issue executive orders to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes would “drag everybody backwards” and risk undoing recent progress on boosting gender equality.
The journalist and TV presenter, who co-founded the Women in Work Summit, told the PA news agency: “It’s a major backward step and slowly erodes their position as a leader.
“I always imagined America to be the land of the free and the brave and where possibility was there for anyone who worked hard enough.
“I think none of those things are proving to be true about America right now.”
She said by rolling back these initiatives, the US will start “slipping backwards in terms of their voice in the world and their economic power”.
“It won’t happen overnight. But I think these are policies that drag everybody backwards,” she cautioned.
Ms Frostrup said firms in the UK may follow suit, but added she was “optimistic that this is just turbulence and that we’re heading in the right direction”.
Her comments came as the Women in Work annual report on gender equality revealed that despite progress in companies overall meeting benchmarks, nine out of 10 male chief executives are replaced by men.
When a female chief executive stands down, she is just as likely to be replaced by a man as another woman, it found.
There has been a recent flurry of female bosses quitting from top listed companies and being replaced by men, such as Dame Emma Walmsley from drug firm GSK and Diageo’s Debra Crew.
Data from professional networking site LinkedIn shows that three-quarters of UK companies have a lower proportion of women in leadership than in their overall workforce.
The findings show women fall behind at every stage of their career, with progression stalling the most between ages 30 and 50 when caregiving responsibilities peak.
Ms Frostrup, who was appointed the Government’s menopause employment ambassador last year, told PA: “There are a lot of women out there who’ve stepped back because they’ve had children, or indeed because they’ve found menopause symptoms too hard to deal with.”
She said they need support to help them back into the workplace “in proper jobs with proper pay”.
The Women in Work report reveals the number of Britain’s largest 400 companies meeting gender equality benchmarks has jumped by nearly a fifth (19%) over the past year.
The report found 121 companies are meeting benchmarks across 24 sectors, covering female representation on company boards (above 33%), gender pay gap (mean or median hourly pay gap under 15%) and transparent parental leave policies.
Ten of these firms have earned their place on the “trailblazers” list with equal executive boards, pay gaps under 1% and transparent parental policies.
This is more than double the number that achieved this status last year.
Ms Frostrup said “I’ve got confidence and assurance that things are going in the right direction and will continue to move in that direction, because every single area of economic endeavour appears to be now understanding that it’s sound business sense to have inclusive and diverse workforces.”
She added: “Just having a woman at the top is not what makes the difference. It’s changing the culture all the way through.”
