US shareholders have once again overwhelmingly rejected anti-DEI proposals in the current proxy season, research shows, with shareholder advocacy group As You Sow arguing that there is continued investor support for workforce diversity initiatives.
According to As You Sow and data summarized by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 43 anti-DEI resolutions were filed during the current proxy season. Of the 22 proposals that reached a vote, average support was approximately 1 percent, meaning roughly 99 percent of shares which cast votes opposed the measures. The results closely mirror those seen during the 2025 proxy season where the likes of Disney, Costco, Visa, Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Berkshire Hathaway and McDonald’s where shareholders all delivered approximately 99 percent votes against anti-DEI proposals.
Many of the proposals sought reports on the return on investment of diversity programs or raised concerns about alleged viewpoint discrimination. At companies including Visa, Intuit, Deere, Disney, Starbucks, Adobe and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, support ranged from 0.4 percent to 0.9 percent.
As You Sow said the results reflect shareholders' continued belief that diverse workforces contribute to long-term value creation. The organization pointed to research linking workforce diversity with stronger financial performance across metrics including enterprise value growth, return on equity and revenue growth. An updated version of its Diversity Benefit report, due for release in July, expands the analysis to 1,676 companies over the 2016-2024 period and found an even stronger correlation between diversity and financial outperformance than its earlier study.
Andrew Behar, chief executive officer of As You Sow, said the voting outcomes leave little room for boards to interpret investor sentiment differently.
'When 99 percent of your owners tell boards – two years running – that inclusive hiring and promotion practices serve the company’s financial interests, their obligation is clear,' he added.
Behar also warned boards against responding to external political pressure at the expense of shareholder preferences.
'In our view, a board that capitulates to outside political pressure and halts these hiring and promotion policies in defiance of 99 percent of its shareholders is breaching the duty it owes to those shareholders, and its directors should expect no-confidence votes at their next election,' he said.
The latest results come as DE&I programs continue to face heightened political and regulatory scrutiny in the US. Nevertheless, the proxy season suggests shareholders remain largely unconvinced by efforts to dismantle existing corporate DE&I frameworks.
Separately, As You Sow has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the US Department of Labor (DOL), alleging the agency improperly withheld workforce diversity data requested more than two years ago.
The lawsuit seeks the release of EEO-1 workforce demographic data for 2021 and 2022. Employers with more than 100 employees and certain federal contractors are required to submit such information, which details workforce composition by race, ethnicity and gender.
As You Sow said investors rely on the data to assess workforce management practices and evaluate links between diversity and financial performance.
In announcing the litigation, Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of As You Sow, said: 'As You Sow requested these records more than two years ago because investors have a legitimate interest in understanding the linkage between workforce composition and financial performance.'
According to the organization, the DOL acknowledged the records request but did not provide the data despite subsequent appeals. The case was filed in federal court in Washington, DC, and seeks to compel the agency to release the information.
Two parallel trends are emerging. On one hand shareholders continue to overwhelmingly reject aimed at rolling back corporate diversity initiatives, while As You Sow's legal action reflects a parallel push safeguard access to workforce data used by investors to assess human capital management, board oversight and long-term value creation. The developments show that for investors diversity and transparency remain material governance considerations.
Natalie Bannerman
Natalie is a former telecoms and infrastructure journalist, a role she held for nearly seven years. Before this, she worked in the B2C startup space, covering lifestyle, arts and culture reporting. As senior reporter for Governance Intelligence she...
