The wooden horse in diversity, equity and inclusion policies among some of the largest companies – especially technology – reinforced a scenario of cuts in these areas that has come since 2022. Although foreign companies operations in the country have been impacted in the period, political scenario, demographic characteristics and legal guarantees can signal to a different stance among national companies.
Technology giants such as Google (), Goal () and Amazon () were some of the first to promote changes or even the discontinuity of their Dei policies, acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion in the United States. Companies like McDonald’s (), Disney () and Goldman Sachs () followed the same way.
For the big techs, the movement represented a sudden change of routes. In 2024, promoted by Kantar and for years were vocal companies on the subject.
According to the founder of the consultancy they program, specializing in the inclusion of women in technology, Silvia Coelho, the technology ecosystem, which strengthened actions between 2018 and 2022, was already undergoing a transformation in Brazil.
“I saw these programs decrease between 2022, 2023, while at the end of the pandemic, due to a number of economic, financial, investors in the United States who ended up reflecting here,” he says. With fewer resources, big techs like Google and Meta cut budgets and included teams dedicated to Dei on.
Trump factor
It turns out that now, political and legal aspects have come into play. A few days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, in an approximation between great executives and the management of the president ,.
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Recently, a US court has ruled that the scholarship that brings together major technology companies could not impose rules to increase diversity on listed companies. By 2023, the country’s Supreme Court had already decided that universities would be prohibited from instituting racial quota programs.
Brazil may not reflect international scenario
In Brazil, the legal scenario is different. Guarantees such as racial quotas at public universities or the quota law for people with disabilities promote greater access to the market. In 2023, the salary equality law that seeks to guarantee equal salaries for men and women in the same position was sanctioned.
“It’s something that is already part of our social conscience and everyone knows. I don’t believe there is setbacks of it [políticas públicas de inclusão]. It ends up reverberating in the job market too, ”says Coelho.
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While several of the most vocal companies on the topic in the United States began to reverse policies related to the subject, Natura () published in January this year a manifesto reinforcing historical commitments of the company with social and environmental themes, under the motto “how much it will cost to invest in the future.”
“When we saw this whole movement, we begin to position ourselves and decided to publicly reaffirm this non-negotiable commitment to life, the construction of this fairer world,” says Natura America’s vice president of people, culture and organization, Paula Benevides à Infomoney.
One is the company most cited by investors when the theme is ESG.
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For Benevides, the reaction to the change of route in the United States should not be reflected in Brazil the demographic aspects. “We need to consider that [os movimentos nos EUA] It can, yes, influence the behavior of some companies and the policies themselves that eventually existed in companies, but strategies of diversity, equity and inclusion need to be based on social, cultural and economic realities of the country. ”
“Brazil is a country with absurd diversity, not only ethnic, but regional, gender, social class,” says Benevides. “How will any company in the country ignore this reality? Anyone who ignores this economic socio -cultural context is a company that is ignoring a consumer reality at the end of the day.”
Among the actions promoted by Natura to increase diversity and inclusion in the company are the commitment to hiring and salary equity goals, as well as an area and budget dedicated to the theme. The company considers, however, that the policy is transverse and rooted in all sectors.
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The company has already eliminated, for example, the salary difference by gender and race, a goal set by 2030. By 2024, it reached 30.8% of hiring and 26.7% of hiring for leadership positions were from black people.
Cátia Porto, Executive Vice President of People of Vale (), Brazil’s most valuable company, seems to have a different view. In recent publications on social networks, Porto stated that “Woke Culture is losing space” in corporations, counteracting policies I made for what it called Mei (Merit, Excellence and Intelligence), published “The globe“.
Involved in socio -environmental tragedies in the cases of Mariana and Brumadinho, Vale is the second company most mentioned by investors in the research of Infomoney when the theme is ex -ex.
