Inclusivity in Corporate Scholarship

For the past two decades, a growing number of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ scholars have reshaped corporate law scholarship. This Essay, prepared for the UMKC Law Review "Now. Women, Equality, and the Legal Academy" symposium, explores how their contributions have challenged dominant narratives in corporate law. While these contributions span a wide range of issues, three central themes emerge. First, much of this scholarship contributes to long-standing debates in corporate law by critically examining existing governance structures and introducing new perspectives that challenge conventional views on corporate purpose, power, and value. Second, and strongly connected to the first theme, women and queer scholars have led inquiries into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks. Third, a substantial body of scholarship confronts the persistent gap and underrepresentation of women, including women of color, in corporate law, governance, and leadership. These works reveal how structural exclusion, entrenched networks, and persistent biases sustain that underrepresentation. Much of this scholarship adopts an interdisciplinary perspective to demonstrate the business advantages of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in corporate governance.
In line with this symposium, we focus on the latter two themes, having addressed the first in previous and ongoing work. Building on those themes, this Essay explores the Trump administration's attacks on DEI across numerous sectors, with a focus on corporate actors. It is too soon to ascertain if this assault will also undermine inclusion-focused scholarship in corporate law and governance--or spur a new wave of scholarship on the governance risks associated with crony capitalism.