Grammy Awards, Female Founders, Goop Summit: Broadsheet

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Grammy Awards get mixed reviews when it comes to women, Steve Wynn steps down from the RNC, and Kristen hangs out with Gwyneth Paltrow and her pals. Have a productive Monday.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

• #GrammysSoMale. That was the hashtag trending during the 60th annual Grammy Awards Sunday night. And for good reason: only one woman, Alessia Cara, won in a major award category (she received the award for best new artist). Other notable awards were given to Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman for best country duo/group performance and posthumously to actor Carrie Fisher for best spoken word album (for the audio version of her memoirs, The Princess Diarist). Overall, women or female-fronted music groups took home 17 out of 85 total awards—or just under 20%.

Moreover, fans pointed out that Lorde, the only female best album nominee, was also the only one not asked by the awards show organizers to give a solo performance. Friday, her mother tweeted a New York Times quote pointing out the gender inequality of the event: "Of the 899 people nominated in the last six Grammy Awards, the report found, only 9 percent were women."

Recording Academy president Neil Portnow gave a tin-eared response when asked about the gender gap, essentially suggesting that women have to try harder. "I think it has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and their souls—who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, who want to be producers, who want to be part of the industry on an executive level—to step up, because I think they would be welcome," Portnow told journalists backstage after the show, reports USA Today.

While women's acceptance speeches and performances were given little airtime at the awards show, the #MeToo movement nevertheless dominated the conversation, with attendees showing solidarity with victims of sexual harassment and assault by wearing white roses. And pop star Kesha, backed by an all-female, white-clad chorus that included Cyndi Lauper and Camila Cabello, gave a powerful performance of her song, Praying, which is about sexual abuse.

The music industry, like any other, clearly still has lots of work ahead of it. But, to echo the words of Janelle Monae, who introduced Kesha onstage, "Just as we have the power to shape culture, we also have the power to undo the culture that doesn’t serve us well."

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

• Cecile to step away. Cecile Richards, the CEO and president of Planned Parenthood, announced Friday that she will step down from the organization this year. Fortune's Grace Connelly takes a look back at Richards' 12 years at the helm of the women’s healthcare non-profit. While Richards did not yet share her plans for the future, she is set to release a memoir in April. Fortune

• No win for Wynn. Billionaire Steve Wynn is the latest to get caught in the crosshairs of the #MeToo movement. The casino magnate has stepped down as Republican National Committee finance chair Saturday, a day after The Wall Street Journal published an investigation detailing many instances of sexual misconduct. Among the details is a $7.5 million payout to a woman who said he pressured her to have sex with him. Wynn denied the allegations: “The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous." Fortune

• Gooping and gabbing. The first In Goop Health wellness summit took place over the weekend and featured a star-studded panel discussion of the #MeToo movement. Here's what Kristen took away from the conversation, which was moderated by Gwyneth Paltrow and featured actors Drew Barrymore and Laura Linney, comedian Chelsea Handler, editor Elaine Welteroth, and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn: Fortune

• When will they learn? The afterparty for the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami was held at a high-end strip club. As former Fortune writer Dan Primack notes, "Not a good look for event organizers who already were taking flack for having just 3 women among 88 speakers." Axios

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Shira Goodman is out as Staples CEO. Oath, parent of AOL, HuffPost and Yahoo, has hired Vanessa Wittman as its new CFO.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• Clinton's complicity? Burns Strider, a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign who was accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a young subordinate, was kept on the campaign at Clinton’s request, NYT reported Friday. The presidential contender tweeted her version of the events: "I was dismayed when it occurred, but was heartened the young woman came forward, was heard, and had her concerns taken seriously and addressed." New York Times

• Rubio learns quickly. A day after the Clinton report emerged, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced that he had fired his chief of staff after allegations of improper conduct, saying he had “violated office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and their subordinates." New York Times

• Friedman reflects. Fortune's Susie Gharib sits down with Adena Friedman, who reflects on her first year as CEO of the Nasdaq. It's been a stellar one: The index surged 28% in 2017, posting one record close after another, and was host to more than 130 IPOs. To top it off, PepsiCo switched its stock listing from the NYSE to the Nasdaq after 100 years. Fortune

• Reese 2.0. The NYT details how Reese Witherspoon, actor and creator of the Emmy-winning series Big Little Lies, "has transformed herself from an actress increasingly frustrated with the roles she was being offered into a producer with a slate of projects that puts her in the company of series creators like Dick Wolf, Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy." New York Times

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