The US’ backlash against equality and diversity has begun – the UK will be next
Amanda Parker
Last year, when asked about the sector’s progress on equality, diversity and inclusion, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s head of evidence and learning Kirsty Gillan-Thomas said out loud what many feared: “Lots of people feel [that sector focus on EDI] has stagnated... and is sliding down the list of priorities.”
Stagnation has given way to decline, on both sides of the Atlantic. The backlash against EDI is most pronounced in the US – over the past three months, firms including Amazon, McDonald’s, Walmart and Meta have downgraded or shelved their EDI agendas. An executive order issued by Donald Trump in the first days of his presidency last month has placed all US government staff working on EDI on administrative leave.
And now, culture: following an order to end diversity programmes in federal-funded museums, both Washington’s National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution say they’re ending their EDI programmes.
The V&A museum came close to partnering with the Smithsonian – one of the first US arts organisations to publicly row back from EDI – and their joint plan had included a Washington-London internship programme.
These executive orders set the tone for the US’ future engagement with EDI. It’s likely that those in the US theatre community follow government sentiment and downgrade their commitment to inclusion.
The V&A’s near miss shows how tonal shifts in the US can affect UK theatre companies that regularly engage with the US. To sustain and nurture engagement with US stakeholders, they’ll need to reframe how they present their inclusion commitments. While this may only directly affect a small number of theatre companies, notably the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, it affects any number of theatre consortia, including big players such as ATG Entertainment, which owns and operates 73 venues across Britain, the US and Germany.
What happens in the US also emboldens further disengagement and disinvestment here in the UK
It also affects business confidence more widely. Taken days after Trump’s return to leadership, a UK snapshot survey of 140 employers reported that almost seven in 10 (69%) expect the US’ EDI row back to affect the workplace and existing EDI policies in Britain.
What happens in the US also emboldens further disengagement and disinvestment here in the UK.
Keir Starmer inherited a crackdown on civil service EDI initiatives from Conservative MP Esther McVey – who famously tried to instigate a ban on rainbow lanyards – and since then, Cabinet Office sources confirm that those efforts have been watered down. But the prime minister is facing pressure from Conservative MPs to follow Trump’s lead.
In the snapshot survey, nearly four in 10 respondents (37%) agreed with the rollback of at least some measures relating to EDI policy in the UK – with 5% saying EDI has already gone too far in the British workplace.
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The theatre sector is already showing signs of deprioritising EDI. Arts businesses are redrawing organisation charts, with head of EDI roles either being removed altogether or being wrapped into the HR teams and function. And where EDI engagement exists, there’s confusion and uncertainty about how to best progress intentions.
Research by charity recruitment service Eastside People reported that EDI ranks high in importance for charities but progress is slow – almost 99% of organisations who responded to its ESG survey conducted last autumn said embedding EDI was ‘very important’ or ‘important’, but 56% rated their progress as still at the ‘starting out’ or ‘developing’ stage.
It’s not just an issue for charities. ATG illustrates the complexity of intention and progress. In its first corporate social responsibility report in 2023, ATG stated its ambitions to ensure all staff receive anti-racism awareness training. The awareness training has been so successful internally that it is now offering it, for a fee, to other theatres beyond the ATG group.
Ensuring all ATG employees have this training is laudable. But it also raises questions about ATG’s progression of systemic change, of which training is just one element.
ATG’s anti-racism lead is not part of its senior leadership team. The group’s strategies for systemic organisational change, including hiring and, more crucially, retention remain within the HR function, and not as a distinct EDI role. ATG has a unique opportunity to activate systems change, building on the anti-racism learning all their staff are offered. It also offers the wider sector an opportunity for learning from its leadership in how it chooses to respond to the reprioritisation of EDI in both the UK and the US.
The challenge facing all theatre leadership is not about whether we stand firm against the US tide. It’s about whether we act on our knowledge, and implement systems change – to policies, mindset, cultures and more.
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