Diversity & Inclusion

Inclusion Under Pressure: 

What National Inclusion Week 2026 Proves Actually Works and What Does Not

National Inclusion Week returns from 14 to 20 September 2026 under the theme "Build Trust. Navigate Change." Founded by Inclusive Employers in 2013, the week has become the UK's largest annual focus on workplace inclusion. It asks organisations and individuals to move past statements and into practical steps that make workplaces more usable for everyone.

For networks concerned with equity and professional development, the timing is useful. Inclusion work now sits between real opportunity and real constraint: tighter budgets, political scrutiny, hybrid working patterns and changing expectations from the workforce.

What 13 Years of Themes Reveal

The Beautiful Contradiction of DEI

Many organisations display that quote on glossy slides while treating diversity, equity and inclusion as a box to tick or a photo-op. Yet the data tell a different story. McKinsey and LeanIn’s Women in the Workplace reports show that women hold about 29 % of C-suite roles, up from 17 % in 2015, but for every 100 men promoted to manager only 81 women advance and far fewer Black women.

McKinsey also finds that 80 % of the gender pay gap stems from unequal opportunity, not base pay. Metrics intended to prove progress often hide the truth. Power remains largely unshifted, leaving the bottom of the pipeline diverse and the top white, bright  and male.

Author and strategist Lily Zheng, in DEI Deconstructed, calls this the “DEI Industrial Complex.” Trainings and…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Reverse?

A Look at the Impact of Political Shifts on Gender and Racial Equity in the US and Beyond

The shift in US policy under the Trump administration has reverberated across the Atlantic, influencing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts not only in the US but also in the UK and Europe. As we witness a troubling slowdown in gender diversity, particularly in corporate boardrooms, we must ask, are we moving forward or backward in our fight for true equality?

In the US, recent data shows a stark decline in women’s representation in senior roles. In 2024, women accounted for just 37% of new board appointments at S&P 500 companies, a drop from 41% the year before. This marks a reversal of the gains made during the early years of Trump’s first term. For Black women and women of colour (WOC), these setbacks are compounded…