Trump's a 'backward step,' says campaigner

DONALD Trump's move to abolish diversity policies has been a “major backward step” for gender equality in the workplace and threatens to drag down economic growth in the US and globally, women’s campaigner Mariella Frostrup has warned.

- HOLLY WILLIAMS

The Somerset-based broadcaster said the US president's decision to issue executive orders to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes would “drag everybody backwards” and risk undoing recent progress on boosting gender equality.

The journalist and TV presenter, who co-founded the Women in Work Summit, said: “It's a major backward step and slowly erodes their position as a leader. I always imagined America to be the land of the free and the brave and where possibility was there for anyone who worked hard enough.

“I think none of those things are proving to be true about America right now.”

She said by rolling back these initiatives, the US will start “slipping backwards in terms of their voice in the world and their economic power”

“It won't happen overnight. But I think these are policies that drag everybody backwards,” she cautioned.