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Sheryl Sandberg, Google, Tina Tchen Habit: Broadsheet May 17

By
Kristen Bellstrom
Kristen Bellstrom
and
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
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By
Kristen Bellstrom
Kristen Bellstrom
and
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 17, 2019, 7:54 AM ET

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Tina Tchen and Robbie Kaplan introduce a new anti-sexual harassment advisory, women are leading the employee revolt at Google, and Sheryl Sandberg weighs in on men who are scared of mentoring women. Have a wonderful weekend.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

• From scared men to empowered employees. This morning, I hope you’ll take a moment to check out two stories just published on Fortune.com.

The first looks at a disturbing trend we’ve been tracking since the onset of the #MeToo era: an increasing tendency among men to say that they’re uncomfortable working with women. As a result, they’re shying away from mentoring us, inviting us to work lunches, meeting with us one-on-one—the list goes on.

In a new Fortune op-ed, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and co-author Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer of P&G, call this phenomenon what it is: disastrous. What’s more, it’s getting worse. The pair report that when LeanIn.Org and SurveyMonkey polled male managers a year ago, 46% said they were “uncomfortable participating in common job-related activities with women." Now that number has jumped to 60%.

Sandberg and Pritchard urge “all of us—especially men—[to] commit to doing better.” Among other things, that means remembering that simply not harassing women is not enough to be a good boss or a good man. (How sad to even have to write such a sentence!) It means being conscious of who we hire, invest in, and promote. It also means getting over any #MeToo anxieties and doing the right thing, i.e. "going the extra mile to mentor and sponsor people—like women—who are often outnumbered and underestimated.”

Also new on the site today: Fortune’s Beth Kowitt’s deep-dive into what she terms Google’s civil war. As the Broadsheet has covered before, Google has been coping with numerous employee rebellions, from the global walkout protesting the company’s handling of sexual harassment, to the uproar over James Damore’s anti-diversity memo, to this month’s sit-ins staged by two women who say the company has retaliated against them for their efforts to organize their fellow workers. (Google denies the retaliation claims.) The story provides a fascinating window into a worker uprising unlike any Silicon Valley—or perhaps the world—has ever seen.

Despite the fact that Google remains overwhelmingly white and male, Beth’s reporting reveals that much of the internal activism at the company has been led by women and people of color. Why? According to many of the people she spoke with, it boils down to Silicon Valley’s devotion to the idea that it's a true meritocracy. Women and POC have always known that to be false, Beth's sources told her. Now, they say, other tech workers are starting to come to the same conclusion. Read the full story here.

 

Kristen Bellstrom
@kayelbee
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

• Forming a new Habit. Fortune's Ellen McGirt has the scoop on Habit, a new anti-sexual harassment advisory founded by Time's Up leaders Tina Tchen and Robbie Kaplan. "It’s bigger than legal compliance, and more powerful than one-off bias mitigation," Tchen tells Ellen. Fortune

• Hedge your bets. For the first time ever, many of the year's highest-profile hedge fund launches are led by women: from Lauren Taylor's Impactive Capital to Angela Aldrich's Bayberry Capital and Rebecca Pacholder's Snowcat Capital. Financial Times

• Lead in, Leadout. Former Facebook executive Alison Rosenthal is behind Leadout Capital, a new $27 million fund investing in seed-stage startups whose founders are from—or whose companies cater to—underserved communities. Leadout's investors working with Rosenthal are also ex-Facebookers. Forbes

• Trophy wanted. Caster Semenya isn't the only athlete facing questioning and discrimination around gender and competition. Powerlifter Mary Gregory won a weightlifting competition, posed for photos with her trophy, and days later was stripped of her title when event organizers learned she was transgender. Washington Post

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Apple’s former retail chief Angela Ahrendts joins Airbnb’s board of directors. Véronique Gébel will lead Rihanna's Fenty label at LVMH. Lyft's Melissa Waters joins Hims as CMO.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• #YouKnowMe. While fights in Georgia and Alabama rage on, women are sharing their abortion stories under the hashtag #YouKnowMe. Busy Philipps was one of the first on her late-night show, but thousands of others have followed suit. And Alabama State Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison tells Elle about being one of only three women to have a Senate vote on Alabama's law banning nearly all abortions.

• Equal pay? The Wall Street Journal's annual CEO pay ranking are out, measuring pay for chief executives who were on the job for all of 2018. Only 20 women ran companies in the S&P 500 in that time frame, and their median pay was $13.7 million, higher than for the men (with the small sample size contributing to that finding). Advanced Micro Devices' Lisa Su was one of the CEOs to deliver the best returns for shareholders. Wall Street Journal

• Investigation in Alaska. In Alaska, at least one in three villages has no local law enforcement. That has led to a higher rate of sexual violence. ProPublica and the Anchorage Daily News investigate as Alaska's governor tries to cut the public safety budget even further. ProPublica/Anchorage Daily News

• Be my (Kylie) baby. Have you heard about Kylie Jenner's next business? Not skin care, although that's coming, but baby products. Breast pumps, strollers, and diapers—it could all be part of Kylie Baby. Fortune

Today's Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe. Share it with a friend. Looking for previous Broadsheets? Click here.

ON MY RADAR

In Venezuela, cheerleading becomes a means of survival California Sunday Magazine

Exploring the toxic world of 'female privilege' The Face

West Point is about to graduate its largest class of black women CNN

The cost of misusing the term 'emotional labor' MEL Magazine

QUOTE

I haven’t been given the permission or privilege to lose a billion every quarter.
Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman on focusing on profitability as a female founder
About the Authors
Kristen Bellstrom
By Kristen Bellstrom
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Emma Hinchliffe
By Emma HinchliffeMost Powerful Women Editor
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Emma Hinchliffe is Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor, overseeing editorial for the longstanding franchise. As a senior writer at Fortune, Emma has covered women in business and gender-lens news across business, politics, and culture. She is the lead author of the Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter (formerly the Broadsheet), Fortune’s daily missive for and about the women leading the business world.

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