Shareholders are voting down anti-DEI measures as companies quietly change websites and rollback DEI policies.

Last month, 98% of Goldman Sachs’ shareholders took the advice of the firm’s board and voted against two anti-diversity, equity and inclusion proposals. Was Goldman Sachs boldly standing up for DEI, while some other big banks were retreating on the issue? (JPMorgan Chase, for example, renamed all its DEI efforts DOI, for Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion.)

Not exactly. In fact, earlier this year GS quietly removed its entire diversity and inclusion section from its annual report this year and just last week it purged mentions of race in its signature “Black in Business” program, suggesting that Black now meant profit i.e. in-the-black.

But in addition to their general aversion to resolutions sponsored by individual shareholders, companies are resisting the urge to incorporate anti-DEI stances into their governance, just as they have generally resisted efforts by shareholders to mandate pro-DEI policies.

“I think what Goldman is doing (on the shareholder resolutions) is actually good business,” says Sonya Mishra, assistant professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business who teaches a course on leading diverse organizations. “They are thinking about the long term reputational effects and signaling to the public—their shareholders and employees—that DEI is important and integral to their business.”

Goldman’s mixed choices are emblematic of the tricky balancing act employers are undertaking–when deciding what DEI measures, if any, to continue. They’re being buffeted between intense pressure from President Trump’s........

© Forbes