Dealbreaker: Diversity Rollbacks for Gen Z

Civil rights attorney and ​​President of A Better Balance (an advocacy organisation fighting for justice in the workplace for women, caregivers, and people with health needs), Inimai Chettiar is the latest to weigh in on the US' shifting DEI landscape. 

Her warning is specifically targeted at Generation Z entering the workforce. In a recent opinion piece for Teen Vogue, she told readers that we're witnessing "a crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the workplace," paired with the systematic gutting of enforcement mechanisms.

She highlights how, just weeks into the current administration, two Democratic commissioners were fired from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), leaving the country’s workplace discrimination watchdog weakened in its ability to enforce protections. Despite likely not needing the reminder, she alerts Gen Z to the hostility they could be walking into and offers practical advice on how to protect themselves in the face of this growing onslaught.

Coming of Age in Crisis

Gen Z didn’t just enter the workforce during a pandemic. They’re coming of age during what feels like a sustained assault on the workplace protections they were told to expect. These are employees who experienced university virtually, started careers remotely, and are now navigating tariff uncertainty, AI disruption and geopolitical instability.

They were onboarded into a hybrid world with promises of fairness, equity and inclusion, and they’re seeing those promises retracted.

They’re not just disappointed. They’re anxious. Mental health issues among young workers are climbing, not helped by the erosion of protection systems that already feel precarious. When safeguards vanish, newer talent doesn’t feel empowered, if anything, they feel exposed.

How Gen Z is fighting back

What Chettiar's article demonstrates, and broader workplace trends confirm, is that Gen Z isn't responding to this uncertainty with silence. While some of their workplace behaviours have landed them at the centre of workplace culture debates, perhaps one of the most important is that they have been recorded to have explicitly made employment decisions based on employers' diversity commitments. Which makes sense given that the generation is more ethnically, racially, and sexually diverse than any before them. 

The Strategic Question about the future of DEI 

The real question to ask yourself as a business isn’t whether DEI efforts will survive political headwinds. It’s whether your company will be ready when the pendulum swings back. Gen Z will eventually lead your organisation, set your culture and define your future. Their expectations around workplace equity aren’t trend-driven. They’re identity-driven.

This isn’t just a political moment. It’s a generational reckoning. 

If you’re aligned with DEI’s purpose but are struggling with execution in the face of turbulent times, we provide strategy development processes that facilitate the creation of a DEI vision, set of goals, objectives and actions. We aid you in staying ahead of the curve, for growth and relevance. Interested in finding out more about how we do this?

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