SSGA Scraps Gender Diversity Efforts

Eight years after it championed the Fearless Girl campaign, which pushed for the representation of women in senior leadership positions, State Street Global Advisors has ditched its gender diversity efforts.

SSGA previously pushed for listed companies to have at least one female board member, while the boards of listed companies have at least 30% female directors.

The $4.7 trillion asset manager ditched these expectations in its March “Summary of Material Changes to State Street Global Advisors’ 2025 Proxy Voting and Engagement Policy.”

SSGA stated that it recognizes that many factors may influence board composition, including board size, geographic location and local regulations, among others.

“As such, our fundamental belief is that our role is not to be prescriptive, but that nominating committees are best placed to determine the most effective board composition and degree of diverse experiences and perspectives represented in the boardroom,” SSGA stated.

In a 2023 proxy voting and engagement guideline, SSGA stated that if a company does not meet its expectations, SSGA may vote against the chair of the board’s nominating committee or, in the absence of such a committee, the board leader.

“Additionally, if a company does not meet the applicable expectation for three consecutive years, State Street Global Advisors may vote against all incumbent members of the nominating committee or those persons deemed responsible for the nomination process,” SSGA stated at the time.

The about-turn comes eight years since SSGA’s Fearless Girl campaign. Around that time, SSGA called out 1,228 companies for lacking gender diversity on their boards, prompting 300 companies to add a female director following the campaign’s commencement, while another 28 committed to do so.

SSGA joins BlackRock, which recently scrapped its “aspirational workforce representation goals” and will no longer require hiring managers to interview a diverse pool of candidates, according to an internal memo from CEO Larry Fink and senior executives.

The memo, sent to staff in February, said delivering for clients requires attracting the best people globally and that BlackRock is “committed” to creating a culture that welcomes “diverse people and perspectives to foster creative solutions and avoid groupthink.”

“At the same time, we operate in one of the most highly regulated industries globally and are committed to following the law in every respect,” the memo stated.

Among President Donald Trump’s cavalcade of executive orders upon taking office in January were two aimed at ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Trump directed U.S. agencies “to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”

U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson has since issued a national preliminary injunction in National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education et al. v. President Donald Trump et al., enjoining several provisions of the related executive orders, including preventing the U.S. attorney general from taking action against private sector entities that continue DEI practices.