HR Frontiers with Senyo M Adjabeng: Diversity Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) beyond gender

For the better part of the last decade, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts were treated just as a statistic.  For gender, this often meant a single, focused goal, increasing the percentage of women in the workforce, and more specifically, in leadership.

We celebrated hitting “30%” targets, launched women’s leadership programs, and felt a sense of accomplishment as the pipeline began to fill.

Admittedly, some men beg to feel cheated and passed over and felt victimised in this quest for gender parity equity and voice.  But as we move further into the mid-2020s, the conversation has matured, expanded, and become significantly more complex.

We have added a critical word to the acronym, ‘Belonging’, transforming DEI into DEIB.  And in doing so, we have fundamentally changed what it means to address gender in the workplace.

As an HR Consultant, I’ve watched organizations navigate the shifting tides of political backlash, legal scrutiny, and economic uncertainty.  What I’ve observed is that while the language around these initiatives is being reframed, with some companies retreating from the explicit “DEIB” label in favour of “Employee Experience” or “Culture and Engagement”, the core business imperative remains.

The organizations that will thrive are not necessarily those with the loudest public declarations, but those with the most resilient internal strategies.  And when it comes to gender, resilience requires us to move beyond the binary, beyond the pipeline, and into the  complicated reality of equity and belonging for ‘all’ employees.

This article argues that to truly embed DEIB through a gender lens, organizations must stop treating gender as a standalone issue of female representation.  Instead, they must recognize it as an intersectional, systemic, and deeply human element of the workplace that requires a holistic strategy encompassing equity, psychological safety, and measurable cultural change.

The Evolution from Diversity to Belonging

To understand where we need to go, we must first acknowledge the evolution of DEIB.  Diversity is the mix. Inclusion is making the mix work.  Equity ensures that the mix is fair.  But Belonging is the emotional outcome, the feeling of being seen, valued, and connected for one’s authentic self.

For years, gender initiatives focused heavily on the “D” and the “I.”  We recruited women (Diversity) and invited them to the table (Inclusion).  But we often neglected the “E” and the “B.”  We failed to ask whether the table had been built for them.

We ignored the fact that while women were present, they often felt pressure to conform to masculine norms of leadership, to hide caregiving responsibilities, or to navigate a system where they were paid less than male peers with equivalent books of business.  This is the gap between inclusion and belonging.

True belonging, in a gender context, means that a woman, does not have to “code-switch” her gender expression to fit in.  It means that a father feels just as entitled as a mother to take extended parental leave without risking his career trajectory.

It means that the workplace policies are designed not for a hypothetical “ideal worker” who has no life outside the office, but for the complex, multifaceted humans who actually do the work.

The Data Behind the Disconnect

Despite decades of focus, the data suggests we are far from achieving this vision of belonging.  While progress has been made at entry levels, the “leaky pipeline” persists.  In the financial services sector, for example, we see a balanced gender ratio at the graduate level, yet women hold only 32% of leadership roles globally.  This isn’t a recruitment failure; it is a retention and advancement failure driven by culture.

Consider the specific challenges that drive this attrition.  Unconscious bias seeps into everyday task assignments, the senior associate who is repeatedly asked to do translation work because of her ethnicity, despite her Juris Doctor and her pursuit of partnership, is being subtly sidelined from billable, promotable work.  This is an equity issue.

Furthermore, the data points we don’t track often tell the most compelling story.  We track the percentage of women in leadership, but do we track the gender wage gap with transparency?  Companies like T-Gaia in Japan are publishing these figures, reporting a wage gap of 77.5% for all workers, as a way of holding themselves accountable.

How many Western and African firms are willing to be that transparent?  We track the number of women hired, but do we track the engagement scores of women returning from maternity leave?  Do we measure the sense of belonging among minority employees, who may feel the weight of having to remain low-key in the absence of senior representation?

Redefining “Gender” in DEIB: An Intersectional View

One of the most critical shifts in the DEIB landscape is the move away from a binary view of gender.  When we say “Gender DEIB,” we are no longer, (and should never have been) speaking only about women. We are speaking about the full spectrum of gender (male and female alike) and how they intersect with race, ethnicity, disability, and other characteristics.

Ignoring this intersectionality leads to flawed strategies.  For instance, a program designed to advance “women in leadership” might inadvertently exclude the specific challenges faced by women of color or disabled women.

As the Simmons University Institute notes, effective leadership development must build the “mindsets and skills needed to navigate and maximize difference across perspectives, work styles, identities, and lived experiences” . You cannot maximize what you refuse to see.

This requires a fundamental shift in policy.  It means moving beyond policies that only support “mothers” to policies that support parents and caregivers of all genders.  It means ensuring that healthcare benefits are inclusive of all employees.

It means using gender language in job descriptions to attract a wider, more diverse pool of candidates, and simplifying those descriptions to focus on essential qualifications rather than an exhaustive list that discourages especially women and minorities from applying.

The “Quiet” Advancement of Women in a Volatile Climate

We are currently operating in a paradoxical climate.  On one hand, data continues to prove that gender-diverse companies are more profitable.  Research cited by Vistage indicates that companies with gender-diverse executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability.  On the other hand, the socio-political landscape in many regions has made explicit DEIB programming a legal and reputational minefield.

In response, I am seeing a trend of “quiet advancement.”   Organizations aren’t abandoning their commitment to women, they are simply changing how they talk about it.  Leadership programs once titled “Women in Leadership” are being rebranded as “Inclusive Leadership” or “High-Potential Leadership”.  Employee Resource Groups are becoming “Employee Networks,” open to all.

Is this a retreat?  Not necessarily.  It can be viewed as a strategic adaptation.  The goal is to protect the work from political volatility by embedding it into the fabric of how the company operates.

The focus shifts from identity-based optics to outcome-based results.  Instead of publicly touting a “women’s mentorship program,” a savvy CHRO will ensure that succession planning processes are scrubbed of bias, that performance reviews are calibrated for equity, and that flexible work arrangements are normalized for everyone.  The work gets done, just with less noise.

Building a System of Belonging for All Genders

So, what does a robust, gender-inclusive DEIB strategy look like in practice?  Based on my consultancy and the emerging best practices from global firms, it rests on four pillars.

First, it requires a ruthless focus on Equity through Auditing.  We must stop guessing and start measuring, even if we do it quietly.  Conduct a DEIB audit to understand the unique challenges gender and minority groups are face within your company.  Are women leaving because of a “motherhood penalty”?

Are men afraid to take paternity leave because of stigma?  Data collected thoughtfully, with legal guidance, provides the roadmap for action .

Second, it demands Human-Centered Leadership.  We need to move away from command-and-control management toward empathetic, human-centered leadership.  This means leaders are trained to recognize and nurture potential in all employees, regardless of gender.

It means creating psychological safety where employees can bring their whole selves to work.  This involves having the difficult conversations that the American Bar Association outlines so well, approaching a colleague who organized a men-only golf outing not with an accusation, but with curiosity and a request for future change.  It is about shifting mindsets, not just mandates.

Third, it requires Inclusive Infrastructure.  This is where policy meets reality.  It means standardizing recruitment processes to eliminate bias, research shows blind application processes can increase women’s chances of getting hired by up to 46%.

It means creating flexible work policies that acknowledge employees have lives, whether they are caring for young children, aging parents, or managing their own health and well-being.  It means, as the CIPM in Nigeria notes, making workplaces accessible not just for people with physical disabilities, but ensuring that the digital transformation and AI tools we adopt do not embed new biases.

Finally, it relies on Community and Connection.  Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) remain a powerful tool when they are supported, not just tolerated.

The Curb-Cut Effect of Gender DEIB

Perhaps the most compelling argument for doubling down on a sophisticated gender strategy is what urban planners call the “curb-cut effect.”  Just as curb cuts cut into sidewalks for wheelchair users ended up benefiting parents with strollers, delivery workers, and travellers with suitcases, designing a workplace for the most marginalized minorities benefits everyone .

When you design a workplace that supports all employees across all categoriess and classes, you build an HR infrastructure that is more compassionate and legally robust for all employees.

When you create a policy that supports a working mother through menopause or fertility treatment, you create a culture of care that supports every employee through various life stages.  When you teach male leaders to listen to female colleagues without interruption, you teach them to listen to all junior colleagues more effectively.

Ignoring the challenges faced by the most vulnerable employees doesn’t just hurt them, it drags down growth, productivity, and well-being for the entire organization.  A culture of silence, bias, and inequity is a culture of stagnation.

The future of work is not about hitting a gender quota.  It is about building a system of belonging where the diversity of human gender and experience is viewed not as a problem to be managed, but as an asset to be leveraged.

As we navigate the current climate of skepticism and rebranding, we must not lose sight of the fundamental truth, organizations are groups of people, and people perform best when they feel they belong.

As HR leaders and business columnists, our role is to look beyond the headlines and the acronyms.  It is to see that “Gender DEIB” is not just about women.  It is about dismantling the rigid structures that have confined us all.  It is about equity for the working father, inclusion for the disabled engineer, and belonging for the female executive who finally feels she can lead without apology.

This is not a moment of retreat, it is a moment of realignment.  And those who align their strategy with the full humanity of their workforce will be the ones who build the most enduring, innovative, and successful companies of the future.

For Further Reading:

1. Brady, Susan MacKenty. “Meeting the Moment: Reframing DEIB and Inclusively Advancing Women in Leadership.” Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership, 13 May 2025.
2. “Episode 135: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) as a Tool for Organisational Sustainability.” CIPM Nigeria, 18 Feb. 2025.
3. “Perceptyx Customer EX Impact Award: Perficient.” Perceptyx, 19 Mar. 2025.
4. “A Roadmap for Difficult Conversations About Diversity.” American Bar Association, Mar. 2025.
5. T-Gaia. “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB).” T-Gaia Sustainability, accessed 2026.
6. Rix, Stephanie. “Building a System of Belonging.” HLB Global, 16 Sept. 2024.
7. Sellin-Mcwatters, Dez. “Friday ‘Finking’ Technology Quick Stats.” LinkedIn, Mar. 2024.
8. “Building a Competitive Edge with DEIB Strategies.” Vistage Florida, 28 Jan. 2025.

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