Microsoft’s latest diversity and inclusion report highlights the company’s commitment to DEI efforts since the 1980s.
Between 1985 and 1995, the tech company named its first diversity director and promoted LGBTQ inclusion.
“This includes offering benefits for same-sex domestic partnerships in 1993, supporting marriage equality early on, and advocating for inclusion of all types of families,” the report says, going on to declare that Microsoft has had a “perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equality Index” since 2005.
Between 1996 and 2006, Microsoft began offering “gender-affirming benefits” to U.S. employees and signed the United Nations’ “Women’s Empowerment Principles.”
“In 2021, we introduced personalized D&I Learning Pathways, offering tailored tracks on core D&I concepts and identity-based topics like race and gender,” the report adds. “These pathways provide essential knowledge, practical skills, and opportunities for discussion through Microsoft forums. Since then, we’ve continued to expand our content, adding new pathways on allyship and religion and faith.”
As of June 2024, 83.5% of Microsoft employees said coworkers take “intentional action to demonstrate allyship in the workplace.” Those who observed “allyship behaviors” said they feel more empowered than those who did not observe “allyship.”
Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Microsoft’s Chief Diversity Officer and Corporate Vice President, Talent and Learning, wrote in the company’s blog that Microsoft’s “Ongoing focus on diversity and inclusion is directly tied to our inherently inclusive mission — to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, enabling us to innovate in the era of AI.”
