What Good Is DEI if It Doesn’t Protect Low-Income Moms?

by IVANA GRECO

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in private business, while not a monolith, generally aim at reducing bias and providing a level playing field for minority groups (including women, racial minorities, and others). Such programs saw explosive growth in recent years, with almost every major corporation in the United States during 2020-2021 adopting some sort of DEI programming in order to make the workplace more inclusive. 

Despite these valuable goals, DEI programs are now — indeed, they long have been — under fire. Such programs were criticized for many years on the grounds that they are often ineffective.¹ (Those interested in this topic might consider reading the book Getting to Diversity: What Works and What Doesn’t² for a data-driven exploration of the question). 

More recently, the opposition has amped up, as culture warriors targeted in their crosshairs both the goals of DEI programs and, particularly, the methods used to achieve them. Shortly after his inauguration, President Trump issued an executive order³ aimed at ending private sector use of “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’” In the wake of this new cultural and regulatory environment, many companies are either rolling back⁴ or reformatting their DEI programs.

Doubtless, we will continue to see significant debate over DEI programs. As policymakers and business leaders consider what to keep and what to cut, one pressing issue should receive significant consideration: Most DEI programs do not do nearly enough for low-income moms. These moms are more likely to be women of color, and they are more likely to need assistance from their employers in order to effectively carry out both their valuable work of caring for their children and fulfilling their work obligations. Unfortunately, they are almost always left out of DEI discussions in the C-suite. That should change.

Although there are DEI programs targeted at mothers, the most prominent are aimed at highly educated women with young children. Many elite companies offer flexible work arrangements and generous maternity leave policies in order to retain female talent.⁵ Others actively seek out highly educated mothers who have left the workforce. The model for these “returnship” programs was introduced by Goldman Sachs almost twenty years ago, in order (at least in part) to recruit back talented women who had left the world of finance to raise children. According to Forbes, these programs are “strategic investments in experienced talent”; part of “a DEI initiative and talent pipeline driver.”⁶ 

Such programs are — of course — worthy endeavors, but they leave out moms without higher education degrees, who are often struggling desperately to achieve “work-life balance.”

For the average low-wage mom, the workplace environment is indeed hostile. Many are struggling to combine caring for little kids with shift work jobs that are inflexible around their childcare needs. According to a 2022 paper, Parenting without Predictability, many of these moms deal with “just in time” scheduling practices in which they “often have shifts canceled, added, or changed at the last minute.”⁷ Researchers found that moms with unpredictable schedules suffer “increased work-family conflict, difficulty arranging childcare, and missed work.”⁷

Moms who work unusual hours often have to use 24-hour day cares, where the children sleep overnight away from home. As the moving documentary, Through the Night, which depicts the lives of overnight care providers, notes: “[Parents] don’t want to do this, but they need to work and take care of their families … this is the way the world is set up at this point.”⁸

Little kids in these programs sleep on cots and in sleeping bags at others’ houses so their parents can work the night shift, sometimes calling mom right before bed so she can say goodnight. And these are the lucky ones: those without access to overnight facilities to care for their children end up using a rotating series of informal caregivers,⁹ like friends or relatives, rely on older siblings to care for younger ones, or, in worst-case scenarios, leave their children unsupervised.

Obviously, this kind of instability is very difficult for moms. It’s also bad for their kids. The harm to children from these ad hoc care arrangements (whether overnight, daytime, or both) is clear. Obviously, little children who are left unsupervised or in the care of siblings can be at risk of serious injury or even death.¹⁰ These kids deal with the disruption of being transferred unpredictably between caregivers based on employer scheduling demands, rather than benefiting from a predictable and reassuring routine, which is often critical in order for babies and toddlers to feel secure. Researchers have also found a litany of other impacts, including decreasing the likelihood of school readiness, potential impacts on child-caregiver emotional attachments, and detectable increases in child stress levels.⁹ (The paper Who Cares if Parents Have Unpredictable Work Schedules?: The Association between Just-in-Time Work Schedules and Child Care Arrangements from 2022 has a fuller explanation of these challenges).⁹

In addition to challenging shift arrangements, low-wage moms are dramatically less likely to have access to paid maternity leave and paid sick leave. For example, one study found that among survey respondents, “60% of women with post-bachelor education versus 29% with high school or less received paid maternity leave.”¹¹ In general, according to the same study, “older, more educated, high-income women also tended to take more weeks of total (paid and unpaid) maternity leave compared with other working women.”¹¹

According to an SHRM report, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics similarly found that “just 14% of workers in the lowest 25% wage category get [paid maternity leave], compared with 48% of those in the top 10%.”¹² This is bad news. Low-income moms who do not have access to paid maternity and sick leave do worse, on average, than moms who have access to those benefits. Our available data is clear that both low-income moms and their babies receive multiple benefits when they are able to access paid leave, including: a greater likelihood of good mental and physical health for mom postpartum, an increased chance of a strong bond between mom and baby, and developmental benefits for baby as well.¹³ As Abby McCloskey, a conservative policy analyst, has pointed out, “There’s little good that comes from separating a child from a parent too early, exposing infants to compromised child care situations, cutting off breastfeeding, experiencing job uncertainty, and the severe financial hardship from going an extended period without pay, especially for low-income and single-parent families.”¹⁴

As corporations consider revamping their DEI programs, and policymakers consider what priorities to urge, poor moms should top the list. True diversity, equity, and inclusion would recognize that moms without financial resources are in need of a fair playing field so they can support their children. Such a shift would tie in well with the trend of corporate social responsibility. It’s long past time for our businesses that want to “do well by doing good” to support low-income moms and their kids.

1. Dobbin F, Kalev A. Why Doesn’t Diversity Training Work? The Challenge for Industry and Academia. Anthropology Now. 2018;10:48–55. doi: 10.1080/19428200.2018.1493182.
2. Dobbin F, Kalev A. Getting to Diversity: What Works and What Doesn’t. Harvard University Press. 2022. 
3. The White House. Presidential Actions: Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. January 21, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/
4. The HR Digest. Are Companies Merely Reframing DEI Policies to Keep up with the Times? August 18, 2025. https://www.thehrdigest.com/are-companies-merely-reframing-dei-policies-to-keep-up-with-the-times/
5. WomenTech Network. Maternity Leave as a Retention Tool. https://www.womentech.net/en-au/how-to/maternity-leave-retention-tool
6. Forbes. Top Companies Offering Returnships For Moms Reentering The Workforce. June 10, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecarter/2025/06/10/companies-offering-returnships-for-moms-reentering-the-workforce/
7. Luhr S, Schneider D, Harknett K. Parenting Without Predictability: Precarious Schedules, Parental Strain, and Work-Life Conflict. The Russel Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. 2022;8(5):24-44. doi: 10.7758/RSF.2022.8.5.02.
8. Limbal L, Autry J. PBS Documentary POV Films: Season 33. Through the Night. May 10, 2021.
9. Harknett K, Schneider D, Luhr S. Who Cares if Parents have Unpredictable Work Schedules?: The Association between Just-in-Time Work Schedules and Child Care Arrangements. Soc Probl. 2022;69(1):164-183. doi: 10.1093/socpro/spaa020.
10. KSDK NBC 5 on Your Side. St. Louis Local News. HPD: Toddler dies of burns after being left home alone with siblings. November 17, 2015. https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/hpd-toddler-dies-of-burns-after-being-left-home-alone-with-siblings/63-32865114
11. Shepherd-Banigan M, Bell JF. Paid Leave Benefits Among a National Sample of Working Mothers With Infants in the United States. Matern Child Health J. 2014;18(1):286-295. doi: 10.1007/s10995-013-1264-3.
12. SHRM. Report: Netflix Sacling Back Generous Paid Parental Leave Policy. December 16, 2024. https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/benefits-compensation/report–netflix-scaling-back-generous-paid-parental-leave-policy
13. Abrams Z. The Urgent Necessity for Paid Parental Leave. APA Monitor on Psychology. 2022;53(3):50. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/04/feature-parental-leave
14. Institute for Family Studies. Pro-Family Fiscal Policy. February 21, 2023. https://ifstudies.org/blog/pro-family-fiscal-policy