Corporate DEI and Gender Policies

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued a Coca‑Cola bottler over a two‑day, women‑only employer‑sponsored retreat and networking event held in Connecticut in September 2024, saying invited women were excused from normal duties, paid regular wages and did not have to use vacation or PTO. The case — the EEOC’s first workplace‑diversity‑related lawsuit in President Trump’s second term — comes amid the administration’s broader push against DEI initiatives, including an executive order revoking a longstanding equal‑opportunity directive, and follows parallel EEOC probes into Nike and Northwestern Mutual and letters from Chair Andrea Lucas to 20 law firms about their diversity programs.