Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Fortune 500 women CEOs are beating expectations, women support their coworkers but men get credit for it more often, and Dominion Voting’s operations EVP reckons with the aftermath of the Fox News settlement. Happy Wednesday!
– Voting rights. When Nicole Nollette accepted a job as EVP of operations for Dominion Voting Systems, she didn’t think that she and her family would be doxxed or harassed. But that’s what happened after the voting operations business became a target of right-wing and election-conspiracist attacks.
“Our customers have been threatened, and their lives have been threatened,” Nollette said in an interview at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit last week. “I’m a Navy veteran and my parents are Army veterans. To see there was anyone who would think I was doing something contrary to democracy or the goals of the United States was incredibly hurtful.”
Former President Donald Trump attacked Dominion, baselessly claiming that the provider of voting software and hardware flipped votes from Trump to President Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Those attacks, amplified by conservative commentators and Fox News, emboldened those who threatened Dominion employees of all levels. Even Nollette’s parents’ address was posted online.
Dominion last month reached a record-breaking $787.5 million settlement with Fox News just before its defamation case against the network was set to go to trial. The decision to settle disappointed some who hoped the trial would force Fox News to address the fallout of its election-lie programming truthfully and in public. But Nollette says the decision to settle was the best choice for Dominion’s customers and employees, who would have been required to give emotionally-draining testimony.
Nollette’s boss, Dominion CEO John Poulos, has predicted that the two-decade-old company’s business “ultimately goes to zero” despite its settlement with Fox. Nollette echoes the sentiment. “Our brand is destroyed at this point,” she says.
Still, besides its remaining six legal battles, the company is focused on serving customers who still rely on Dominion. While Dominion has been forced to spend much of its energy on national politics, its products are used in state and local elections nearly every week. “Every Tuesday, something is voting,” she says.
“We didn’t go out and seek this conflict,” Nollette adds. “But we are standing up to it.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Kinsey Crowley. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Working women ahead. Women aged 25 to 54 are working in greater numbers than ever before. In April, 77.5% of women in that age group participated in the workforce, beating the previous record set in 2000. A strong labor market and inflation rates have spurred the recovery from the COVID-era "she-session." Bloomberg
- Overachieving. Three Fortune 500 companies led by women CEOs announced that company earnings from last quarter exceeded Wall Street's estimates: Dick's Sporting Goods, led by Lauren Hobart; Ross Stores, led by Barbara Rentler; and Williams-Sonoma, led by Laura Alber.
- One out of four. Prominent U.K. businessman and chairman of Tesco John Allan will step down over allegations of inappropriate behavior towards women. He has denied three of the four accusations that the Guardian published earlier this month. He apologized for the fourth incident involving comments about a woman's dress. Wall Street Journal
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Teresa Tang is the new SVP head of analytics, data science, and data engineering at Brightcove. Upwork has appointed Zoë Diamadi as general manager of enterprise. Paige O’Neill will be CMO at Seismic. Coalition for Community Solar Access is bringing on Molly Knoll as VP of policy. TripleLift has appointed Joyce Liu as CFO.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Spilling over. The divisive political culture in the U.S. is spilling over into corporate governance through shareholder proposals. The number of proposals has nearly doubled in the last year, as shareholders push companies to take a side in debates over abortion, gun control, and ESG policies. Wall Street Journal
- Coworker support. Women are more likely than men to provide support for coworkers, but men are more likely to be rewarded for it. Experts suggest that managers should prompt employees to talk about who supports them, in case the support that women offer is less visible than men's. Fortune
- Falling behind. Seventeen of the U.K.'s biggest energy companies have an all-male board of directors. The industry is slated to miss the Women Leaders Review target of 40% board representation for women by 2025. Bloomberg
- Food and national security. Land O’Lakes President and CEO Beth Ford urged people to pay attention to the upcoming water supply crisis. She said that demand for water will outpace supply by 2030 and that the agriculture industry needs more workers and researchers to find a solution. “We need other innovators, other younger folks involved in agriculture and the food supply,” she said. High Plains Journal
ON MY RADAR
What Susan Sontag wanted for women The New Yorker
A first look at Sofia Coppola’s deeply personal new book Vogue
Wanda Sykes on her new Netflix special, Dave Chappelle and being a ‘woke comic’ Variety
‘I Don’t Have A Choice:’ Meet the Uvalde Moms Fighting for Gun Reform Rolling Stone
PARTING WORDS
"You must, you have to, and you have to fly. This is your moment."
—Chlöe Bailey encouraging her sister Halle Bailey to break away from their duo for the lead role in The Little Mermaid
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