Ivanka Backtracks on Equal Pay, A Sexist Harvey Tweet Goes Viral, Bumble Takes on LinkedIn

EVERYONE'S TALKING

•Equal pay rule stay. The Trump White House Tuesday announced a “review and immediate stay” of the EEO-1 pay data collection rule. The rule, introduced by President Obama’s administration in 2016, would have required companies with 100 or more employees to submit data on worker pay broken down by race, ethnicity, and gender. It was an effort to enforce equal pay laws and expose discriminatory pay practices—and would have impacted about 63 million Americans.

The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB), however, decided that the data collection process would place too large a burden on businesses. A memo from the office reads: "Among other things, OMB is concerned that some aspects of the revised collection of information lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues."

Despite positioning herself as a champion of equal pay, Ivanka Trump issued a statement supporting the stay. “Ultimately, while I believe the intention was good and agree that pay transparency is important, the proposed policy would not yield the intended results,” she said. (Interestingly, as our colleague Claire Zillman points out, the first daughter recently expressed interest in a similar law now in place in Germany.)

Some equal pay experts disagree with her assessment. Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, described the move to Claire as, "a blatant attack by the Trump administration on fair pay for women and people of color.”

The White House's decision does not inspire confidence that the president—or the first daughter—are willing to stand behind policies that will help level the playing field for working men and women, something both have repeatedly said they support. As cumbersome as the process of collecting data may be, it's a small price to pay for narrowing the gender pay gap. Progress on equal pay in the U.S. has stalled in recent years; experts currently estimate that women won't reach parity until 2152. While it's impossible to quantify the impact of this news, I'd venture to guess that it isn't helping to push that date any closer.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

•A Sequoia scoop. For the past year, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has been running Ascent, a program that pairs technical women across its portfolio companies with mentors at other organizations. Fortune's Michal Lev-Ram has the exclusive scoop on the initiative. Fortune

•Busy with the Bizz. Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe—who resigned after being allegedly harassed by a colleague and then went on to launch dating app competitor Bumble—now wants to help users make connections of a different kind. This autumn, her company will launch Bumble Bizz, which Wolfe refers to as an "empowered LinkedIn." Wired

•Tomi's new soapbox. Tomi Lahren, the conservative pundit who was controversially fired from TheBlaze network, has landed a new gig as a Fox News contributor. Lahren's show on TheBlaze was canceled after she revealed that she was pro-choice this past March. She later filed suit against the network, alleging wrongful termination; it was settled in May. Fortune

•How Twitter ought to be. Matt Walsh, a columnist for TheBlaze (the same conservative network that fired Tomi Lahren) tweeted a photo of a Houston Police SWAT officer carrying a mother and her child along with the following headline: "Woman cradles and protects child. Man carries and protects both. This is how it ought to be, despite what your gender studies professor says." The social media backlash—including a brilliant response by an actual gender studies professor—was fierce. Fortune

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

•McCaskill's master plan. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is arguably the most vulnerable Democratic senator heading into the 2018 elections. Here's how she's going about holding on to her seat: Politico

•I hear homogeneity. As in many technical fields, music production and sound engineering are dominated by men (estimates are between 93% and 95%). As The Atlantic explains, "With men holding the vast majority of technical jobs in audio, it follows that virtually all the music we hear—on the radio, over headphones, or in a live venue—has been shaped by a man." The Atlantic

•Can Landauer land a sponsor? Julia Landauer is one of the most promising NASCAR drivers in America and almost certainly the best up-and-coming female one. The 25-year-old Stanford grad is seen as the only woman with a legitimate chance of joining Danica Patrick at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (Patrick was the first, and is still the only, woman to compete in the ride). Despite Landauer's talent and smarts—which, as a former classmate of hers, I can personally attest to—she's finding sponsorship money extremely difficult to come by. Bloomberg

•#OscarsGonnaBeSoMale. The Venice Film Festival has just one female-directed project in its roster of 21 movies. That's particularly notable since the festival is one of the best predictors of future Oscar winners. The festival director's response to the lack of diversity? "I don't think it's our fault." Hollywood Reporter

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ON MY RADAR

Black Girls Code says it turned down $125,000 from Uber TechCrunch

Trevor Noah defends Melania Trump: Why should we care about what she wears when helping people? Mediaite

The loopholes that allow child marriage in the U.S. NPR

Taylor Swift’s new song is a pure piece of Trump-era pop art New York Magazine

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