Recognising women’s achievements and integral success

Review, Reflect and Learn

What does equity look like in the construction, energy and transport sectors?

A world renowned transgender advocate

In this episode, Fiona discusses her decision to launch WOB UK, the leadership and company culture issues that hinder diversity in the boardroom and why data is so important in achieving greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Reflecting on their 2025 work, The Equal Group observed a more complex and honest landscape. Staff are more vocal yet fatigued, while leaders are cautious and often unaware of the depth of employee disengagement. Client projects showed a slow but clear shift away from short-term interventions toward demanding systemic change. Recurring challenges include a gap between leadership perception and employee reality, with inclusion still being treated as a project rather than an ongoing responsibility. The blog concludes that many are currently "lost," with leaders feeling commitment is risky due to backlash, and staff feeling overlooked. The path forward requires renewed focus, managing the most complex aspects of EDI, and prioritizing long-term structural progress over temporary optics.

The concept of allyship has critically drifted from its original purpose of active solidarity to become a self-appointed status symbol and a means to deflect accountability. True allyship is defined by consistent, high-risk action, which often involves discomfort, inconvenience, and challenging the system, not by low-cost, performative gestures like wearing badges or posting online. This performative allyship is rooted in self-interest, offering moral credit without consequence, and fails to dismantle structural inequality. When the social or professional cost of advocacy becomes high, many "allies" quietly disappear, revealing their commitment as conditional. Ultimately, the text challenges the reader to determine if they are a genuine ally—willing to risk social capital and comfort—or merely attached to the image of one, concluding that allyship that only exists when safe and rewarded is nothing more than self-promotion dressed up as principle.

In this blog post by Bronte Smith, The Equal Group unpack the use of terms like white privilege, male privilege and able-bodied privilege - "Privilege: The Word That Started a Culture War," is the first piece in The Equal Group's new series, Beyond the Buzzwords: EDI Unpacked, which aims to clarify misunderstood language in equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).

In this reflective blog post, Mac explores what his #BHMHeroes taught him about meaningful corporate commitment, why performative celebration harms inclusion, and how Black History Month should drive structural, not symbolic, change.