DEI's Collapse and the Cost to Black Women

DEI’s Collapse and the Cost to Black Women
Emari Pam | July 24, 2025

The war on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), fueled by two of the current administration’s Executive Orders, has sharply increased unemployment among Black women. A Financial Times commentary from mid-2025 warns of a steadily declining U.S. job market, citing slowing job growth and shrinking labor force participation. While the national unemployment rate hovered around 4.2% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this number masks significant disparities, particularly for Black women. Since January 2025, Black women’s unemployment rate has risen each month, increasing by approximately 0.5 to 1 percentage point per month. Meanwhile, white women’s unemployment has remained stable at 3.1%. This pattern coincides with DEI policy reversals across both the federal government and private sector. In January, the current administration issued two executive orders which dismantled federal DEI programs and removed contractor diversity reporting requirements. These shifts have triggered mass layoffs and stripped away workplace protections, disproportionately affecting Black women.

Black women are significantly over-represented in federal government employment, making them especially vulnerable to policy changes that target public sector equity initiatives. According to data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Black women make up roughly 12% of the federal workforce, compared to just 7% of the overall U.S. labor force. Many have historically sought stability and upward mobility in public service jobs, where equal opportunity and diversity mandates have played a critical role in mitigating workplace discrimination. However, those protections are disappearing. As a result, departments that once prioritized diverse hiring and retention have halted DEI efforts entirely, leaving Black women disproportionately affected by job cuts and career stagnation. Recent reports indicate that over 69,000 federal positions were slashed by mid-2025, many in roles tied to DEI or held by Black women in administrative, training, and human resources departments.

The disproportionately high unemployment rate among Black women in 2025 reflects deeper structural inequities embedded in the U.S. labor market. Black women face added challenges re-entering the workforce due to systemic barriers, such as occupational segregation, wage disparities, and discriminatory hiring practices. A 2024 study by Yang & Murali found that bias in the hiring process accounts for up to 52% of the racial employment gap, underscoring the persistence of exclusionary practices. The National Partnership for Women & Families warns that without meaningful DEI protections, these disparities are likely to grow, particularly in workplaces that are no longer accountable to inclusive recruitment and advancement policies.

Despite being among the most educated groups in the United States, Black women continue to face structural barriers that push them into lower-paying or precarious job sectors, a dynamic known as occupational segregation. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 2020–2021 academic year, Black women earned 70% of all master’s degrees awarded to Black students and held the highest percentage of graduate degrees among women of color across all racial groups. Yet, this academic achievement rarely translates to equitable employment outcomes.

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https://feminist.org/news/deis-collapse-and-the-cost-to-black-women/